EGYPT    EXPLORATION    FUND 
QRAECO-RQMAN    BRANCH 

NEW  SAYINGS  OF  JESUS 

AND 

FRAGMENT  OF  A  LOST  GOSPEL 

FROM    OXYRHYNCHUS 

EDITED,    WITH    TRANSLATION    AND   COMMENTARY, 
BY 

BERNARD   P.   GRENFELL,    D.Lirr.,   M.A. 

HON.  LITT.U.,  DUBLIN;  HUN.  PH.D.,  KOBNIGSBBRG;  FELLOW  OF  QUBBN'S  COLLEGE,  OXFORD;  LUCY 
WHARTON  DRBXEL  GOLD  MEDALLIST  OF  THB  UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA; 

AND 

ARTHUR    S.    HUNT,    D.Lrrx.,  M.A. 

HON.  PH.D.,  KOBNIGSBBRG;  FELLOW  OF  LINCOLN  COLLBGB,  OXFORD 


WITH    ONE   PLATE 

AND 

THE  TEXT   OF  THE  'LOGIA1    DISCOVERED   IN    1897 


Regional       iSHED  FOR  THE  EGYPT  EXPLORATION  FUND  BY 
OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


114  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 
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LIBRARY 

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SANTA  BARBARA 

GIFT  OF  MRS.  WILBUR  JACOBS, 
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MRS.  AUGUSTA  G.  STANLEY. 


UCSB    LIBRARY 


NEW  SAYINGS  OF  JESUS 

AND 

FRAGMENT  OF  A  LOST  GOSPEL 

GRENFELL  AND  HUNT 


&*mW!%®F™ 

^iiMi1^^ 

re  «vN&,  *~ife'i*frijsiJ4H 


NEW  SAYINGS   OF   JESUS 


UCSB    LIBRARY 


EGYPT    EXPLORATION    FUND 
QRAECO-ROMAN    BRANCH 

NEW  SAYINGS  OF  JESUS 

AND 

FRAGMENT  OF  A  LOST  GOSPEL 

FROM    OXYRHYNCHUS 

EDITED,    WITH    TRANSLATION   AND   COMMENTARY, 
BY 

BERNARD    P.    GRENFELL,    D.LITT.,   M.A. 

HON.  LITT.D.,  DUBLIN;  HON.  PH.D.,  KOENIGSBERG;  FELLOW  OF  QUEEN'S  COLLEGE,  OXFORD;  LUCY 
WHARTON  DRHXEL  GOLD  MEDALLIST  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA; 

AND 

ARTHUR   S.    HUNT,    D.LITT.,   M.A. 

HON.  PH.D.,  KOENIGSBBRG;  FELLOW  OF  LINCOLN  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 


WITH    ONE    PLATE 

AND 

THE  TEXT  OF  THE  'LOGIA'    DISCOVERED   IN    1897 


PUBLISHED  FOR  THE  EGYPT  EXPLORATION  FUND  BY 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

114  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 
LONDON,  TORONTO,  MELBOURNE  &  BOMBAY 


COPYRIGHT   1904 

BY 
OXFORD   UNIVERSITY   PRESS  AMERICAN    BRANCH 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PREFACE 

THE  present  edition  of  the  New  Sayings  of  Jesus  and  Frag- 
ment of  a  Lost  Gospel  is  printed  with  some  alterations,  princi- 
pally by  way  of  abridgement,  from  the  forthcoming  publication 
of  the  two  texts  in  The  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Part  IV,  nos.  654 
and  655,  where  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  more  technical  points 
will  be  given,  as  well  as  collotype  reproductions  of  both  frag- 
ments. The  '  Logia'  discovered  in  1897  (AON  A  IHCOY,  Say- 
ings of  our  Lord)  are  reprinted  from  the  revised  text  and 
translation  given  in  The  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Part  I,  no.  1. 


BERNARD  P.  GRENFELL. 
ARTHUR  S.  HUNT. 


OXFORD, 

April  1904. 


CONTENTS 


PREFACE 


I.  NEW  SAYINGS  OF  JESUS  : 

(a)  INTRODUCTION 9 

(H)  TEXT ii 

(c)  THE  SAYINGS  WITH  TRANSLATIONS  AND  NOTES    .  12 
(</)  GENERAL  REMARKS 20 

II.  THE  '  LOGIA  '  DISCOVERED  IN  1897 37 

III.  FRAGMENT  OF  A  LOST  GOSPEL  : 

(a)  INTRODUCTION 39 

(£)  TEXT 40 

(<:)  TRANSLATION  AND  NOTES 42 

(d)  GENERAL  REMARKS 45 


I.    NEW  SAYINGS   OF  JESUS 

(a)  INTRODUCTION. 

OUR  first  excavations  in  1897  on  the  site  of  Oxyrhynchus. 
one  of  the  chief  cities  of  ancient  Egypt,  situated  on  the  edge 
of  the  western  desert  120  miles  south  of  Cairo,  were  rewarded 
by  the  discovery  of  a  very  large  collection  of  Greek  papyri 
dating  from  the  first  to  the  seventh  century  of  the  Christian 
era.  Of  the  numerous  theological  and  classical  texts  which 
were  then  brought  to  light,  none  aroused  wider  interest  than  a 
page  from  a  book  containing  Sayings  of  Jesus  and  published 
by  us  under  the  title  of  AOFIA  IHCOY,  Sayings  of  our  Lord. 
After  an  interval  of  six  years,  during  which  we  were  principally 
engaged  in  the  search  for  documents  of  the  first  three  cen- 
turies B.  c.  in  the  Fayum,  we  returned  in  February  1903  to 
Oxyrhynchus,  with  a  view  to  an  exhaustive  examination  of 
what  has  been  on  the  whole  the  richest  site  in  Egypt  for 
papyri.  This  process  of  clearing  the  numerous  mounds  on  a 
large  scale  has  already  resulted  in  further  important  discoveries, 
but  will  necessarily  be  both  long  and  costly  in  the  case  of  a 
town  which  is  more  than  a  mile  in  length  ;  and  after  the  ter- 
mination of  a  third  season's  work  there,  the  end  is  still  far 
from  being  in  sight. 

By  a  curious  stroke  of  good  fortune  our  second  excavations 
at  Oxyrhynchus  were,  like  the  first,  signalized  by  the  discovery 
of  a  fragment  of  a  collection  of  Sayings  of  Jesus.  This  con- 
sists of  forty-two  incomplete  lines  on  the  back  of  a  survey-list 
of  various  pieces  of  land  (see  Frontispiece}.  The  survey-list, 
which  was  written  in  a  cursive  hand  of  the  end  of  the  second 
or  early  part  of  the  third  century  before  the  back  of  the 
papyrus  came  to  be  used,  provides  a  terminus  a  quo  for  the 
writing  on  the  other  side.  This,  which  is  an  upright  informal 
uncial  of  medium  size,  we  should  assign  to  the  middle  or  end 


io  I.    NE\V    SAYINGS    OF   JESUS 

of  the  third  century ;  a  later  date  than  A.  D.  300  is  most  un- 
likely. The  present  text  is  therefore  nearly  contemporary  with 
the  '  Logia  '  papyrus  discovered  in  1 897,  which  also  belongs  to 
the  third  century,  though  probably  to  an  earlier  decade.  In 
its  general  style  and  arrangement  the  present  series  of  Sayings 
offers  great  resemblance  to  its  predecessor.  Here,  as  in  the 
earlier  '  Logia,'  the  individual  Sayings  are  introduced  by  the 
formula  '  Jesus  saith,'  and  there  is  the  same  mingling  of  new 
and  familiar  elements  ;  but  the  second  series  of  Sayings  is 
remarkable  for  the  presence  of  the  introduction  to  the  whole 
collection  (11.  1-5),  and  another  novelty  is  the  fact  that  one  of 
the  Sayings  (11.  36  sqq.)  is  an  answer  to  a  question,  the  sub- 
stance of  which  is  reported  (11.  32-6).  It  is  also  noticeable 
that  while  in  the  first  series  the  Sayings  had  little  if  any  con- 
nection of  thought  with  each  other,  in  the  second  series  the 
first  four  at  any  rate  are  all  concerned  with  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  That  the  present  text  represents  the  beginning  of  a 
collection  which  later  on  included  the  original  '  Logia '  is  very 
probable  ;  this  and  the  other  general  questions  concerning  the 
papyrus  are  discussed  on  pp.  20-36. 

Excluding  the  introduction,  there  are  parts  of  five  separate 
Sayings.  The  single  column  of  writing  is  complete  at  the  top, 
but  broken  at  the  bottom  and  also  vertically,  causing  the  loss 
of  the  ends  of  lines  throughout.  From  11.  7-8,  15,  25,  and  30, 
which  can  be  restored  with  certainty  from  extant  parallel  pas- 
sages, it  appears  that  the  lacunae  at  the  ends  of  lines  range 
from  twelve  to  sixteen  or  at  most  eighteen  letters,  so  that  of 
each  line,  as  far  as  1.  33,  approximately  only  half  is  preserved. 
The  introduction  and  the  first  and  fourth  Sayings  admit  of  an 
almost  complete  reconstruction  which  is  nearly  or  quite  con- 
clusive, but  in  the  second,  third,  and  fifth,  which  are  for  the 
most  part  entirely  new,  though  the  general  sense  may  often  be 
caught,  the  restorations  are,  except  in  a  few  lines,  rather 
hazardous.  The  difficulties  caused  by  the  lacunae  are  en- 
hanced by  the  carelessness  of  the  scribe  himself,  who  makes 
several  clerical  errors;  in  two  cases  (11.  19  and  25)  words 
which  were  at  first  omitted  have  been  added  by  him  over  the 
line. 


I.    NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS 


ii 


(b)  TEXT. 

We  proceed  now  to  the  text,  giving  first  a  transcription 
of  the  papyrus  and  then  a  reconstruction  in  modern  form. 
Square  brackets  [  ]  indicate  a  lacuna,  round  brackets  ( )  the 
resolution  of  an  abbreviation,  angular  brackets  {  )  a  mistaken 
omission  in  the  original,  braces  {  }  a  mistaken  addition.  Dots 
within  brackets  represent  the  approximate  number  of  letters 
lost ;  dots  outside  brackets  indicate  letters  of  which  illegible 
traces  remain.  In  the  accompanying  translation  supple- 
ments which  are  not  practically  certain  are  enclosed  in  round 
brackets. 


24-4  x  7-8  cm. 


01  TOIOI  01  AOroi  01  [ 
AHC6N   fTTC  O  Z60N   K[ 
KAI  0COMA  KAI  eiTT€N  [ 
AN  TOON  AOrCON  TOYT[ 
OY  MH 


MH  TTAYCAC0O)  O  ZH[ 
6YPH   KAI   OTAN  6YPH  [ 
BH06IC  BACIA6YCH   KA[ 
HC6TAI   N^-  A€re  I   l 


10  01  6AKONT6C   HMAC  [ 
H  BACIA6IA  GN  OYPA[ 

TA  neieiNA  TOY  OYP[ 

Tl  YTTO  THN  THN  €CT[ 
01  i'X0Y€C  THC  0AM[ 

15  T€C  YMAC  KAI   H  BAC[ 
6NTOC  YMOON  [.]CTI  [ 
TNtO  TAYTHN  €YPH[ 
6AYTOYC  TNCOCeceAl  [ 

YM6IC 
€CT€  TOY  17ATPOC  TOY  T[ 

ao  TNCOCee  €AYTOYC  €N[ 
KAI  YM6IC  6CT6  HnTO[ 


OYK  AHOKNHCei  AN9[ 

PU>N  enepooTHce  HA[ 

POON  nePI  TOY  TOTTOY  TH[ 

OTI 

25  C€T€  HOAAOI  6CONTAI  TT[ 
01  6CXATOI  TTPCOTOI  KAI  [ 

CIN         Aerei  me  ^  .  [ 

66N  THC  OY€O)C  COY  KAI  [ 
ATTO  COY  AnOKAAY4>HCeT[ 
30  TIN   KPYTTTON  0  OY  *AN6[ 
KAI  eeGAMMENON  0  0[ 

[.  .]€TAZOYCIN  AYTON  0[ 
[.  .]rOYCIN  TTGOC  NHCT€Yf 


[ 


35 


]M€6A  KAI  TTOOC  [ 
]AI  Tl  HAPATHPHC[ 

[.  .  .  .]N  ^-  Aerei  nrc[ 
[  .....  jeiTAi  MH  noieij[ 

[.  .  .  .  JHC  AAH06IAC  AN[ 

[  ........  .]N  A[.]OK€KP[ 

40  [  ........  ]KAPI[.  .]  6CTIN  [ 

[  ............  ]0)  €CT[ 

[  ..............  ]JN[ 


12  I.    NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS 

(c)  THE   SAYINGS   WITH    TRANSLATIONS 
AND    NOTES. 

INTRODUCTION.     11.  1-5. 
{ot}  rotot  ot  Aoyot  ot  [ ov?  €\a- 

KCU  @otp.a.  /cat  elnev  [avrots'  Tra?  oorts 
av  TO>V  Xoyeuz/    TOUT[G>I>  aKovcry  Oavdrov 
ov  pr)  yeuViyrat. 

'  These  are  the  (wonderful?)  words  which  Jesus  the  living 
(Lord)  spake  to  ...  and  Thomas,  and  he  said  unto  (them), 
Every  one  that  hearkens  to  these  words  shall  never  taste 
of  death.' 

The  general  sense  of  the  introduction  is  clear,  and  most  of 
the  restorations  are  fairly  certain.  In  1.  i  an  adjective  such  as 
'  wonderful '  is  necessary  after  ot  [.  For  '  shall  never  taste  of 
death  '  cf.  Matt.  xvi.  28,  Mark  ix.  i,  Luke  ix.  27,  and  especially 
John  viii.  52,  'If  a  man  keep  my  word,  he  shall  never  taste  of 
death.'  In  these  passages  of  the  Synoptists  'taste  of  death' 
simply  means  '  die '  in  the  literal  sense ;  but  here  no  doubt, 
as  in  the  passage  in  St.  John,  the  phrase  has  the  deeper  and 
metaphorical  meaning  that  those  who  obey  Christ's  words  and 
attain  to  the  kingdom,  reach  a  state  unaffected  by  the  death  of 
the  body.  The  beginning  of  1.  i  requires  some  correction, 
oi  rotoi  oZ  Xoyoi  oZ  being  extremely  ugly.  The  corruption  of  ovrot 
into  oZ  TOIOI  is  not  very  likely,  and  since  TOIOS  is  found  in  late 
prose  writers  for  rotdo-Sc,  the  simplest  course  is  to  omit  the  initial 
ot.  The  restoration  of  1.  2  presents  the  chief  difficulty.  »c[v'pios 
is  very  doubtful ;  *[<u  followed  by  e.  g.  airoQavw  ('  Jesus  who 
liveth,  though  dead ')  is  equally  likely,  and  several  of  the  pos- 
sible supplements  at  the  end  of  the  line  require  a  longer  word 
than  K[vpios  to  precede.  Another  dative  before  '  and  to  Thomas' 
is  required,  and  three  alternatives  suggest  themselves  :  —  ( i )  a 
proper  name,  in  which  case  Philip  or  Matthias  is  most  likely  to 
have  been  coupled  with  Thomas.  Apocryphal  Gospels  as- 
signed to  Thomas,  Philip,  and  Matthias  are  known,  and  in  the 


I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF  JESUS  13 

second  or  third  century  Gnostic  work  called  Pistis  Sophia  70-1 
Philip,  Thomas,  and  Matthias  are  associated  as  the  recipients 
of  a  special  revelation  ;  (2)  a  phrase  such  as  '  to  the  other  dis- 
ciples '  (so  Dr.  Bartlet,  cf.  1.  32  and  John  xx.  26  '  his  disciples 
were  within  and  Thomas  with  them');  (3)  'lou'Sa  TW]  xal  ®a>/ia, 
suggested  by  Professor  Lake,  who  compares  the  frequent  occur- 
rence of  the  double  name  '  Judas  also  called  Thomas  '  in  the 
Acts  of  Thomas.  The  uncertainty  attaching  to  the  restoration 
is  the  more  unfortunate,  since  much  depends  on  it.  If  we 
adopt  the  first  hypothesis,  Thomas  has  only  a  secondary  place  ; 
but  on  either  of  the  other  two  he  occupies  the  chief  position, 
and  this  fact  would  obviously  be  of  great  importance  in  deciding 
the  origin  of  the  Sayings. 

There  is  a  considerable  resemblance  between  the  scheme  of 
11.  1-3,  '  the  words  .  .  .  which  Jesus  spake  .  .  .  and  he  said,' 
and  the  formulae  employed  in  introducing  several  of  the  ear- 
liest citations  of  our  Lord's  Sayings,  particularly  First  Epistle 
of  Clement  1  3  '  especially  remembering  the  words  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  which  he  spake  in  his  teaching  ...  for  thus  he  said,' 
Acts  xx.  35  'and  to  remember  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
how  he  himself  said.'  Dr.  Rendel  Harris  had  already  (Con- 
temp.  Rev.  1897,  pp.  346-8)  suggested  that  those  formulae 
were  derived  from  the  introduction  of  a  primitive  collection  of 
Sayings  known  to  St.  Paul,  Clement  of  Rome,  and  Polycarp, 
and  this  theory  gains  some  support  from  the  parallel  afforded 
by  the  introduction  in  the  new  Sayings. 

FIRST  SAYING.     11.  5-9. 

5  [Xeyet  *Ii7(croC)s* 

6    rra)v  ........   ecus  av 


Ka    orav  evpr)       a/A/^creTat  KOL 

/ca[l  /SacnAevcras  avaira.- 


'  Jesus  saith,  Let  not  him  who  seeks  .  .  .  cease  until  he 
finds,  and  when  he  finds  he  shall  be  astonished  ;  astonished 
he  shall  reach  the  kingdom,  and  having  reached  the  king- 
dom  he  shall  rest.' 


14  I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS 

The  conclusion  of  this  Saying  is  quoted  from  the  Gospel 
according  to  the  Hebrews  by  Clement  of  Alexandria  (Strom. 
ii.  9.  45)  'as  it  is  also  written  in  the  Gospel  according  to  the 
Hebrews  "  He  that  wonders  shall  reach  the  kingdom,  and  hav- 
ing reached  the  kingdom  he  shall  rest."  '  In  Strom,  v.  14.  96 
Clement  quotes  the  Saying  in  a  fuller  and  obviously  more  ac- 
curate form  which  agrees  almost  exactly  with  the  papyrus,  but 
without  stating  his  source  :  —  'He  who  seeks  shall  not  cease 
until  he  finds,  and  when  he  finds  he  shall  be  astonished,  and 
being  astonished  he  shall  reach  the  kingdom,  and  having  reached 
the  kingdom  he  shall  rest.'  The  word  after  ^[TWV  in  1.  6,  to 
which  there  is  nothing  corresponding  in  the  Clement  quotation, 
is  very  likely  the  object  of  '  seek,'  perhaps  rqv  ^v,  i.  e.  (eter- 
nal) '  life.'  The  purpose  to  which  Clement  turns  the  passage 
from  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  is  to  support  the 
Platonic  view  that  the  beginning  of  knowledge  is  wonder  at 
external  objects,  but  this  interpretation  is  clearly  far  removed 
from  the  real  meaning  of  the  Saying. 

The  opening  sentence  '  Let  not  him  who  seeks  .  .  .  cease 
until  he  finds  '  is  parallel  to  Matt.  vi.  33  '  But  seek  ye  first  the 
kingdom,'  and  vii.  7  '  Seek  and  ye  shall  find ' ;  cf.  too  the  2nd 
Logion  '  Except  ye  fast  to  the  world  ye  shall  in  no  wise  find 
the  kingdom  of  God.'  The  idea  of  the  necessity  for  strenuous 
effort  in  order  to  attain  to  the  kingdom  has  also  much  in  com- 
mon with  the  5th  Logion  ('  Raise  the  stone  and  there  thou 
shalt  find  me ').  The  precise  meaning  of  '  astonished  '  in  the 
second  and  third  sentences,  '  when  he  finds  he  shall  be  aston- 
ished ;  astonished  he  shall  reach  the  kingdom,'  has  been  a  mat- 
ter of  dispute ;  but,  as  Professor  Harnack  has  recently  shown, 
the  nearest  parallel  is  Matt.  xiii.  44  '  The  kingdom  of  Heaven 
is  like  unto  a  treasure  hidden  in  the  field,  which  a  man  found 
and  hid ;  and  in  his  joy  he  goeth  and  selleth  all  that  he  hath, 
and  buyeth  that  field.'  Astonishment  therefore  is  to  be  inter- 
preted as  a  sign  not  of  fear  but  of  joy  ;  cf.  the  use  of  0a/*/3°s 
for  joyful  astonishment  in  Luke  v.  9  '  He  (sc.  Peter)  was 
amazed  and  all  that  were  with  him  at  the  draught  of  the  fishes.' 
With  the  clause  '  astonished  he  shall  reach  the  kingdom,'  i.  e. 
reign  with  the  Messiah,  cf .  the  promise  to  the  disciples  in  Matt. 


I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS  15 

xix.  28  'Verily  I  say  unto  you  that  ye  which  have  followed  me 
in  the  regeneration  when  the  Son  of  Man  shall  sit  on  the  throne 
of  his  glory,  ye  also  shall  sit  upon  twelve  thrones,  judging  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel.'  For  '  shall  rest  '  cf.  Matt.  xi.  28-9 
'  I  will  give  you  rest  ...  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls.' 
Both  the  language  and  thought  of  this  Saying  thus  have  marked 
parallels  in  the  Gospels,  and  there  are  several  references  to  it 
in  early  Christian  literature,  the  most  notable  being  in  the 
Second  Epistle  of  Clement  v.  5  '  The  promise  of  Christ  is  great 
and  wonderful  and  rest  in  the  kingdom  to  come  and  life  eter- 
nal/ and  in  the  Acts  of  Thomas  (ed.  Bonnet,  p.  243)  '  They 
who  worthily  partake  of  the  goods  of  that  world  have  rest,  and 
in  rest  shall  reign.'  While  the  picturesque  and  forcible  char- 
acter of  the  Saying  is  undeniable,  very  different  views  have 
been  taken  concerning  the  genuineness  of  it,  as  is  the  case  with 
most  of  the  uncanonical  Sayings  ascribed  to  our  Lord  ;  but  the 
tendency  of  recent  criticism  has  been  to  assign  it  a  very  high 
place  among  the  Sayings  which  do  not  rest  on  the  authority 
of  the  Gospels,  and  Harnack  accepts  it  as  substantially  a  true 
Saying  of  Jesus. 

SECOND  SAYING.     11.  9-21. 

Xeyet  ^[^(crou?*   ......  ru/es 

10  ot  IX/COJTCS  T7/xa9  [ei?  ryv  /JacrtXetai;  et 

r)  /8ao~tXeta  ev  ovpa.\_va>  i&nv  ;   ......... 

TO,  TrereLva  rov  ovp\_avov  /cat  rcav  Oyptaiv  o- 
TL  VTTO  rrjv  Y?)V  €<rr\_iv  f[  €TTL  Trjs  y^9  /cat 
ot  l^Qves  Trjs  $aXa[a"cr)7S  ovrot  ot  €\KOV- 
15  T€5  v^iag,  /cat  17  /3acr[tXeia  rotv  ovpav&v 
vfji(t)v  [e]<rrt  [/cat  ocrrts  OLV  lavrov 


eavroug  yv&Krecr$e  [/cat  etSiycrere  ort  vtot 
ecrre  v^tet?  rov  Trarpo?  rov  r\_ 


/cat   v/xet?  ecrre  777rro[  .... 

'  Jesus  saith,  (Ye  ask  ?  who  are  those)  that  draw  us  (to 
the  kingdom,  if)  the  kingdom  is  in  Heaven  ?  .  .  .  the  fowls 


16  I.    NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS 

of  the  air,  and  all  beasts  that  are  under  the  earth  or  upon 
the  earth,  and  the  fishes  of  the  sea,  (these  are  they  which 
draw)  you,  and  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  within  you  ;  and 
whoever  shall  know  himself  shall  find  it.  (Strive  there- 
fore ?)  to  know  yourselves,  and  ye  shall  be  aware  that  ye 
are  the  sons  of  the  (almighty  ?)  Father ;  (and  ?)  ye  shall 
know  that  ye  are  in  (the  city  of  God  ?),  and  ye  are  (the 
city  ?  ).' 

The  reconstruction  of  this,  the  longest  and  most  important 
of  the  Sayings,  is  extremely  difficult.  Beyond  the  supplements 
in  1.  15,  which  are  based  on  the  parallel  in  Luke  xvii.  21  with 
the  substitution  of  '  kingdom  of  Heaven,'  St.  Matthew's 
phrase,  for  St.  Luke's  '  kingdom  of  God  '  which  is  too  short  for 
the  lacuna,  and  those  in  11.  12-3,  16,  and  18,  the  general 
accuracy  of  which  is  guaranteed  by  the  context,  it  is  impossible 
to  proceed  without  venturing  into  the  region  of  pure  conjec- 
ture. There  seems  to  be  no  direct  parallel  to  or  trace  of  this 
Saying  among  the  other  non-canonical  Sayings  ascribed  to  our 
Lord,  and  the  materials  provided  by  11.  10-12 — 'they  that 
draw,'  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  and  the  fowls  of  the  air  —  are 
at  first  sight  so  disparate  that  the  recovery  of  the  connexion 
between  them  may  seem  a  hopeless  task.  But  though  no  re- 
storation of  11.  9-14  can  hope  to  be  very  convincing,  we  think 
that  a  fairly  good  case  can  be  made  out  in  favour  of  our  gen- 
eral interpretation.  The  basis  of  it  is  the  close  parallelism 
which  we  have  supposed  to  exist  between  1.  1 5  res 
/Sao-  [iXeta  rusv  ovpava>v  and,  on  the  other  hand,  1.  10  ol 
^/iSs  followed  in  1.  1 1  by  ^  jSao-iAci'a  ev  ovpa[v<3,  whereby  we  re- 
store ol  €\KOV-]  at  the  end  of  1.  14.  If  this  be  granted  11.  9- 
16  divide  themselves  naturally  into  two  parallel  halves  at  the 
lacuna  in  1.  n,  11.  9-10  corresponding  to  11.  12-5,  and  1.  n  to 
11.  1 5-6.  How  is  this  correspondence  to  be  explained  ?  The 
simplest  solution  is  to  suppose  that  11.  9-11  are  a  ques- 
tion to  which  11.  12-6  form  the  answer ;  hence  we  supply 
rives  in  1.  9 ;  cf.  the  5th  Saying,  which  is  an  answer  to 
a  question.  A  difficulty  then  arises  that  we  have  '  draw  us  '  in 
1.  10  but  'draw  you'  in  11.  14-5.  This  may  be  a  mere  acci- 
dent due  to  the  common  confusion  of  V"*  and  ^tis  in  papyri 


I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS  17 

of  this  period,  and  perhaps  '  you  '  should  be  read  in  both  cases. 
But  '  us  '  in  1.  10  can  be  defended  in  two  ways,  by  supposing 
either  that  Jesus  here  lays  stress  rather  on  His  human  than 
on  His  divine  nature,  and  associates  Himself  with  the  disciples, 
or  that  the  question  is  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  disciples,  i.  e. 
the  word  before  '  who  '  was  '  ye  ask '  or  the  like.  There  re- 
mains, however,  the  greatest  crux  of  all,  the  meaning  of  '  draw/ 
A  favourable  sense  is  here  much  more  likely  than  the  reverse ; 
cf.  John  vi.  44  '  No  man  can  come  to  me  except  the  Father 
which  sent  me  draw  him,'  and  xii.  32  '  I  will  draw  all  men 
unto  myself.'  A  phrase  such  as  '  to  the  kingdom '  is  required 
to  explain  '  draw,'  though  even  with  this  addition  the  use  of 
that  word  in  such  a  context  must  be  admitted  to  be  difficult. 
The  idea  in  11.  12-6  seems  to  be  that  the  divine  element  in  the 
world  begins  in  the  lower  stages  of  animal  creation,  and  rises 
to  a  higher  stage  in  man,  who  has  within  him  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  ;  cf .  Clement's  discussion  (Strom,  v.  1 3)  of  Xeno- 
crates'  view  that  even  irrational  creatures  possibly  had  some 
notion  of  the  Divine,  and  the  curious  sanctity  of  certain  animals 
in  the  various  Apocryphal  Acts,  e.  g.  Thecla's  baptized  lion- 
ess, Thomas's  ass,  Philip's  leopard  and  kid  buried  at  the  door 
of  the  church.  The  transition  from  the  inward  character  of 
the  kingdom  to  the  necessity  for  self-knowledge  (11.  16-21)  is 
natural.  Since  the  kingdom  is  not  an  external  manifestation 
but  an  inward  principle,  men  must  know  themselves  in  order 
to  attain  to  its  realization.  The  old  Greek  proverb  '  know 
thyself  '  is  thus  given  a  fresh  significance.  Mr.  Badham  well 
compares  Clement,  Paedag.  iii.  I  '  It  is  then,  as  it  appears,  the 
greatest  of  all  lessons  to  know  one's  self.  For  if  a  man  knows 
himself  he  will  know  God.'  For  '  sons,'  which  is  required  by 
the  context  in  1.  18,  cf.  e.  g.  Luke  xx.  36  'they  are  .  .  .  sons 
of  God.'  At  the  end  of  1.  19  TT  can  be  read  in  place  of  T  :  th? 
word  is  probably  an  adjective,  possibly  7r[avroKpaTopos.  iprro[  ii« 
I.  21  is  very  obscure,  and  it  is  tempting  to  read  ^  7r{T}o'[Xis, 
with  tv  [rrj  7roX«  TOW  0eou  in  1.  2O,  as  Professor  Blass  suggests, 
comparing  for  the  omission  of  ovras  Mark  vi.  20  eiSws  airrbv 

aiv8pa 


i8  I.    NEW   SAYINGS    OF  JESUS 

THIRD  SAYING.     11.  21-7. 

[  Xe'yet,  l 

OVK  diroKVTJo'tL  av6[pamos   ...... 

pup  eVcpcor^crat  7ra[  ......... 

patV  7Tf.pl  TOV  TO7TOV  T7j[?      ........ 

25  crcrc  OTI  TroXXoi  ecroKTcu  7r[/3o>Toi  ccr^arot 
ot  ecr^arot  TTpwroL  /cat  [  ........ 


1  Jesus  saith,  A  man  shall  not  hesitate  ...  to  ask  .  ,  . 
concerning  his  place  (in  the  kingdom.  Ye  shall  know)  that 
many  that  are  first  shall  be  last  and  the  last  first  and  (they 
shall  have  eternal  life  ?).' 


Line  24  may  well  have  continued  T[^S  /fao-iAeias  followed  by 
a  word  meaning  '  know  '  ;  but  in  the  absence  of  a  clear  parallel 
we  forbear  to  restore  the  earlier  part  of  the  Saying.  Lines  25-6 
follow  Mark  x.  31  (  =  Matt.  xix.  30)  *  Many  that  are  first  shall 
be  last,  and  the  last  first.'  Luke  xiii.  30  is  rather  longer. 
'  There  are  last  which  shall  be  first  and  there  are  first  which 
shall  be  last.'  cnv  in  1.  27  is  no  doubt  the  termination  of  a 
verb  :  for  '  shall  have  eternal  life  '  cf.  John  iii.  16,  36,  v.  24,  &c. 

FOURTH  SAYING.     11.  27-31. 

Aeyei  '^(crov)?'  \_irav  TO  pr)  €fjLTrpo<r- 
6tv  r»7S  o»/;€o>9  o~ov  KCU  [TO  Ke/cpv/z./AeVov 
airo  crov  a7roK<xXv<£(#)i7o-eT[cu  o~ot.     ou  yap  ecr- 

3°  TLV   KpVTTTOV   O  OV  <f)CLVe[pOV  <y€VTJ(T€Tai, 

o  O[VK 


'  Jesus  saith,  Everything  that  is  not  before  thy  face  and 
that  which  is  hidden  from  thee  shall  be  revealed  to  thee. 
For  there  is  nothing  hidden  which  shall  not  be  made  man- 
ifest, nor  buried  which  shall  not  be  raised.' 

The  sense  of  this  Saying  is  clear,  and  the  supplements  are 
fairly  certain.  Lines  29-30  are  parallel  to  Matt.  x.  26  '  For 
there  is  nothing  covered  that  shall  not  be  revealed,  and  hid  that 


I.    NEW    SAYINGS    OF   JESUS  19 

shall  not  be  known  '  ;  Luke  xii.  2  '  But  there  is  nothing  covered 
up  that  shall  not  be  revealed,  and  hid  that  shall  not  be  known  '  ; 
cf.  Mark  iv.  22  '  For  there  is  nothing  hid  save  that  it  should  be 
manifested,  neither  was  anything  made  secret  but  that  it  should 
come  to  light.'  In  general  arrangement  the  papyrus  agrees 
with  the  versions  of  Matthew  and  Luke  perhaps  more  than 
with  that  of  Mark  ;  but  the  language  of  the  first  half  of  the 
sentence  is  much  closer  to  St.  Mark's  (whose  expression  '  save 
that  it  should  be  manifested  '  instead  of  the  more  pointed 
'  which  shall  not  be  manifested  '  suggests  the  hand  of  an  editor), 
while  that  of  the  second  half  diverges  from  all  three.  '  Buried  ' 
makes  a  more  forcible  contrast  to  '  hidden  '  than  the  correspond- 
ing word  in  the  Synoptists,  which  is  merely  a  synonym  for 
'  hidden.'  Instead  of  '  shall  be  raised  '  a  more  general  expres- 
sion such  as  '  shall  be  made  known  '  can  be  supplied  ;  but  this 
detracts  from  the  picturesqueness  of  what  is  in  any  case  a 
striking  variation  of  a  well-known  Saying. 

FIFTH  SAYING.     11.  32-42. 

avrov  o[t  p,a0r)Tal  avrov 


Kal  770)5  [ 

35  [.  .  .  .  K~\al  TI  7rap 
[  .....  ~\v  ;  Xcyei  * 

T)  7rotetr[e 
s  av\_ 


40  [  ......  /Aa]/capt[o?]  eo-TW  [ 

[  ............  ]&>  eVr[t 


'  His  disciples  question  him  and  say,  How  shall  we  fast 
and  how  shall  we  (pray  ?)  .  .  .  and  what  (commandment) 
shall  we  keep  .  .  .  Jesus  saith,  ...  do  not  ...  of  truth 
.  .  .  blessed  is  he  .  .  .' 

Though  this  Saying  is  broken  beyond  hope  of  recovery,  its 
general  drift  may  be  caught.  It  clearly  differed  from  the  other 


20  I.    NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS 

Sayings,  both  in  this  papyrus  and  the  first  series  of  Logia,  in 
having  a  preliminary  paragraph  giving  the  occasion,  which  seems 
to  be  a  question  put  by  the  disciples.  This  question  consisted 
of  a  number  of  short  sentences,  each  beginning  with  '  how  '  or 
'  what,'  and  so  far  as  can  be  judged,  they  were  concerned  with 
the  outward  forms  of  religion,  fasting,  prayer,  and  almsgiving. 
How  far,  it  was  probably  asked,  are  existing  Jewish  ordinances 
to  be  kept  ?  The  answer  of  Jesus  appears  to  have  been  a  series 
of  short  commandments  insisting  on  the  inner  side  of  religion 
as  the  pursuit  of  virtue  and  truth,  and  very  likely  concluding 
in  1.  40  with  the  promise  '  Blessed  is  he  who  doeth  these 
things.'  If  this  explanation  is  on  the  right  lines,  there  is  a 
general  parallelism  between  this  Saying  and  Matt.  xix.  16-22 
and  Luke  xviii.  18-22  (the  answer  to  the  question '  What  shall 
I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life  ? ').  The  reference  to  fasting  in 
1.  33  suggests  a  connexion  with  the  2nd  Logion  ('Except  ye  fast 
to  the  world '),  which  may  well  have  been  an  answer  to  a  simi- 
lar question  by  the  disciples. 

(d)  GENERAL   REMARKS. 

We  do  not  propose  to  enter  upon  a  detailed  examination  of 
the  numerous  and  complicated  problems  involving  the  Canoni- 
cal and  Apocryphal  Gospels  and  the  '  Logia  '  of  1 897,  which 
are  reopened  by  the  discovery  of  the  new  Sayings.  But  we 
may  be  permitted  to  indicate  the  broader  issues  at  stake,  and 
in  the  light  of  the  wide  discussion  of  the  Logia  of  1897  to 
point  out  some  effects  of  the  new  elements  now  introduced 
into  the  controversy. 

We  start  therefore  with  a  comparison  of  the  two  series  of 
Sayings,  which  we  shall  henceforth  call  1  (the  new  Sayings) 
and  2  (the  'Logia'  found  in  1897).  Both  were  found  on  the 
same  site  and  the  papyri  are  of  approximately  the  same  date, 
which  is  not  later  than  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century, 
so  that  both  collections  must  go  back  at  least  to  the  second 
century.  The  outward  appearance  of  the  two  papyri  is  indeed 
different,  2  being  a  leaf  from  a  handsomely-written  book,  which 
may  well  have  been  a  valuable  trade-copy,  while  1  is  in  roll 


I.    NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS  21 

form  and  was  written  on  the  back  of  a  comparatively  trivial 
document.  The  practice  of  writing  important  literary  texts  on 
such  material  was,  however,  extremely  common,  and  the  form 
of  1  lends  no  support  to  the  hypothesis  that  the  papyrus  is  a 
collection  of  notes  made  by  the  writer  himself.  In  the  uncial 
character  of  the  handwriting,  the  absence  of  abbreviations  and 
contractions  other  than  those  usually  found  in  early  theologi- 
cal MSS.,  and  the  careful  punctuation,  1  shares  the  character- 
istics of  an  ordinary  literary  text  such  as  2.  Since  2  is  the 
nth  page  of  a  book,  it  must  have  formed  part  of  a  large  col- 
lection of  Sayings,  while  1  comes  from  the  beginning  of  a 
manuscript  and  provides  no  direct  evidence  of  the  length  of 
the  roll.  But  the  document  on  the  other  side  is  not  a  letter 
or  contract  which  would  be  likely  to  be  short,  but  an  official 
land-survey  list,  and  these  tend  to  be  of  very  great  length ;  so 
far  therefore  as  can  be  judged  from  externals,  1  like  2  proba- 
bly belongs  to  an  extensive  collection  of  Sayings  which  may 
well  have  numbered  several  hundreds. 

Turning  next  to  the  contents  of  the  two  papyri,  no  one  can 
fail  to  be  struck  with  their  formal  resemblance.  Postponing 
for  the  moment  the  introduction  of  1  (11.  1-5),  which,  since  it 
necessarily  presupposes  the  existence  of  the  Sayings  introduced 
and  may  have  been  added  later,  stands  on  a  different  footing 
from  the  Sayings  and  requires  separate  treatment,  the  five 
Sayings  partly  recorded  in  1  begin  like  those  in  2  with  the 
plain  formula  '  Jesus  saith ' ;  and  both  fragments  contain  Say- 
ings which  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  have  parallel  passages 
in  the  Synoptic  Gospels  side  by  side  with  Sayings  which  are 
new.  In  2  the  style  was  simple  and  direct,  and  the  setting, 
with  the  constant  balancing  of  the  words  and  sentences  and 
the  absence  of  connecting  particles,  highly  archaic  ;  the  same 
features,  though  obscured  unfortunately  by  the  incompleteness 
of  the  papyrus,  are  also  distinctly  traceable  in  1.  There  is, 
however,  one  difference  in  the  two  papyri  in  point  of  form. 
To  the  5th  Saying  in  1  (11.  36  sqq.)  is  prefixed  (11.  32-6)  a  brief 
account  of  the  question  to  which  it  was  the  answer ;  but  this 
is  the  exception,  not  the  rule,  and  the  fact  that  the  Sayings  in  2 
agree  with  the  first  four  Sayings  in  1  in  omitting  the  context 


22  I.    NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS 

rather  than  with  the  5th  obviously  produces  no  serious  conflict 
between  the  two  documents. 

We  proceed  to  a  closer  examination  of  the  two  series.  In  2 
the  7th  Logion  ('  A  city  built  on  a  hill ')  is  connected  with  St. 
Matthew's  Gospel  alone  ;  the  6th  (« A  prophet  is  not  accept- 
able ')  has  a  marked  point  of  contact  with  St.  Luke  in  the  use 
of  the  word  '  acceptable,'  and  the  ist  also  agrees  with  St.  Luke. 
The  5th  ('Wherever  there  are')  starts  with  a  parallel  to  St. 
Matthew,  but  extends  into  a  region  far  beyond.  Nowhere  in 
2  can  the  influence  of  St.  Mark  be  traced,  nor  was  there  any 
direct  parallel  with  St.  John's  Gospel ;  but  the  new  matter,  both 
in  thought  and  expression,  tended  to  have  a  mystical  and  Johan- 
nine  character.  In  1  we  have  one  Saying  (the  2nd)  of  which 
the  central  idea  is  parallel  to  a  passage  found  in  St.  Luke  alone, 
but  of  which  the  developments  are  new  ;  the  conclusion  of  the 
3rd  Saying  connects  with  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  rather  than 
with  St.  Luke,  while  the  4th  is  a  different  version  of  a  Saying 
found  in  all  three  Synoptists,  and  is  on  the  whole  nearer  to 
St.  Mark  than  to  the  other  two  Evangelists.  The  ist  Saying 
and,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  the  5th  have  little,  if  any,  point  of 
contact  with  the  Canonical  Gospels.  As  in  2,  so  in  1  the  new 
elements  tend  to  have  a  Johannine  colouring,  especially  in  the 
2nd  Saying ;  and  though  the  Sayings  in  1  contain  nothing  so 
markedly  Johannine  in  style  as  e.  g.  'I  stood  in  the  midst  of 
the  world  .  .  .  '  in  2,  the  introduction  contains  a  clear  parallel 
to  John  viii.  52.  This  at  first  sight  may  perhaps  seem  to  im- 
ply a  knowledge  of  St.  John's  Gospel  on  the  part  of  the  author 
of  the  introduction,  but  it  must  be  remembered  (i)  that  St.  John 
may  well  not  have  been  the  sole  authority  for  the  attribution  of 
that  Saying  to  our  Lord,  and  if  so,  that  the  author  of  the  in- 
troduction may  have  obtained  it  from  another  source,  (2)  that 
a  knowledge  of  St.  John's  Gospel  on  the  part  of  the  author  of 
the  introduction  does  not  necessarily  imply  a  corresponding 
debt  to  that  Gospel  in  the  following  Sayings,  which,  as  we  have 
said,  stand  on  a  somewhat  different  footing  from  the  introduc- 
tion. 

In  our  original  edition  of  2  we  maintained  (a)  that  the  Say- 
ings had  no  traceable  thread  of  connexion  with  each  other  be- 


I.   NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS  23 

yond  the  fact  of  their  being  ascribed  to  the  same  speaker,  (b) 
that  none  of  them  implied  a  post-resurrectional  point  of  view, 
(c)  that  they  were  not  in  themselves  heretical,  and  that  though 
the  asceticism  of  Log.  2  and  the  mystic  character  of  Log.  5 
were  obviously  capable  of  development  in  Encratite  and  Gnostic 
directions,  the  Sayings  as  a  whole  were  much  nearer  in  style  to 
the  New  Testament  than  to  the  apocryphal  literature  of  the  mid- 
dle and  end  of  the  second  century.  If  these  positions  have  been 
vigorously  assailed,  they  have  also  been  stoutly  defended,  and 
about  the  second  and  third  no  general  agreement  has  been 
reached  ;  with  regard  to  the  first  the  balance  of  opinion  has  been 
in  favour  of  our  view,  and  the  various  attempts  to  trace  a  con- 
nexion of  ideas  running  through  the  Sayings  have  met  with 
little  acceptance.  What  answer  is  to  be  returned  to  the  corre- 
sponding problems  in  1  ? 

We  will  take  the  third  question  first.  Is  there  anything  in 
1  to  show  that  the  Sayings  originated  in  or  circulated  among 
a  particular  sect?  We  should  answer  this  in  the  negative. 
There  is  nothing  heretical  in  the  introduction,  the  i  st,  3rd,  and 
4th  Sayings,  or,  so  far  as  can  be  judged,  the  5th.  The  Ascetic 
leanings  which  have  been  ascribed  to  the  2nd  Logion  are  con- 
spicuously absent  in  1  ;  the  remains  of  the  5th  Saying  in  fact 
rather  suggest  an  anti-Jewish  point  of  view,  from  which  however 
the  2nd  Logion  itself  was  not  widely  distant,  if,  as  we  strongly 
hold,  '  fast '  and  '  sabbatize '  are  to  be  taken  metaphorically. 
The  absence  of  any  Jewish-Christian  element  in  1  is  the  more 
remarkable  seeing  that  the  i  st  Saying  also  occurs  in  the  Gospel 
according  to  the  Hebrews.  The  only  Saying  that  is  at  all  sus- 
picious is  the  2nd,  which  like  Log.  5  is  sure  to  be  called  in  some 
quarters  '  Gnostic.'  That  the  profoundly  mystical  but,  as  it  seems 
to  us,  obviously  genuine  Saying  of  our  Lord  recorded  in  Luke 
xvii.  2 1  '  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you  '  should  have  given 
rise  to  much  speculation  was  to  be  expected,  and  from  Hippo- 
lytus  Refut.  v.  7  it  is  known  that  this  Saying  occupied  an  im- 
portant place  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Naassenes,  one  of  the  most 
pronounced  Gnostic  sects  of  the  second  or  early  third  century. 
That  there  is  a  connexion  between  the  Sayings  and  the  Naas- 
senes through  the  Gospel  of  Thomas  is  quite  possible  and  this 


24  I.   NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS 

point  will  be  discussed  later ;  but  to  import  Naassene  tenets 
into  the  2nd  Saying  in  1  is  not  only  gratuitous  but  a  vo-repov 
•n-portpov.  Moreover,  though  the  other  ideas  in  the  Saying  con- 
nected with  the  parallel  from  St.  Luke,  the  development  of 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven  through  brute  creation  up  to  man  (if  that 
be  the  meaning  of  11.  9-16),  and  the  Christian  turn  given  to  the 
proverbial  *  Know  thyself '  (11.  16-2 1 ),  may  point  to  a  later  stage 
of  thought  than  that  found  in  the  Canonical  Gospels,  the  2nd 
Saying  as  a  whole,  if  '  Gnostic,'  presents  a  very  primitive  kind 
of  Gnosticism,  and  is  widely  separated  from  the  fully-developed 
theosophy  of  e.  g.  the  Pistis  Sophia.  In  any  case  the  '  Gnos- 
ticism '  of  1  is  on  much  the  same  level  as  that  of  2. 

Do  any  of  the  Sayings  (apart  from  the  introduction)  imply 
a  post-resurrectional  point  of  view  ?  This  too  we  should  answer 
in  the  negative.  There  is  not  only  nothing  in  them  to  indicate 
that  they  were  spoken  after  the  resurrection,  but  substantial 
evidence  for  the  opposite  view.  The  familiar  Sayings  in  the 
Canonical  Gospels  which  are  parallel  to  those  found  in  1  are 
there  assigned  to  our  Lord's  lifetime,  including  even  John  viii. 
52.  The  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  with  which  the  ist 
Saying  is  connected  covered  the  same  ground  as  the  Synoptists, 
and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  Saying  occurred 
there  as  a  post-resurrectional  utterance.  But  the  best  argument 
is  provided  by  the  5th  Saying,  especially  its  context,  which  is 
fortunately  given.  The  questions  there  addressed  to  Jesus 
clearly  belong  to  a  class  of  problems  which  are  known  to  have 
been  raised  by  our  Lord's  disciples  and  others  in  his  lifetime, 
and,  if  e'^cra^owiv  is  in  any  case  a  somewhat  stronger  term  than 
would  be  expected,  seeing  that  the  disciples  seem  to  be  the  sub- 
ject (though  cf.  John  xxi.  12),  it  is  most  unlikely  that  this  word 
would  have  been  used  with  reference  to  the  risen  Christ.  In 
fact  none  of  the  five  Sayings  in  1  suggests  a  post-resurrectional 
point  of  view  so  much  as  the  3rd  Logion  ('  I  stood  in  the  midst 
of  the  world ') ;  cf .  p.  26. 

Can  a  definite  principle  or  train  of  ideas  be  traced  through 
the  Sayings  ?  The  first  four  are  certainly  linked  together  by 
the  connecting  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  which  is  the 
subject  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  all  of  them.  But  between 


I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS  25 

the  4th  and  the  5th  Sayings  the  chain  is  certainly  much  weaker 
and  threatens  to  snap  altogether.  It  is  very  difficult  to  believe 
that  if  1  was  part  of  a  large  collection  of  similar  Sayings  a  con- 
nexion of  thought  could  have  been  maintained  throughout,  and 
the  Sayings  in  the  later  columns  of  1  may  well  have  been  as 
disconnected  as  those  in  2.  Even  in  the  five  which  are  partly 
preserved  in  1  there  is  a  constant  change  in  the  persons  ad- 
dressed, the  ist  and  3rd  being  couched  in  the  third  singular, 
the  2nd  and  almost  certainly  the  5th  in  the  second  plural,  and 
the  4th  in  the  second  singular.  Moreover  the  real  link  is,  we 
think,  supplied  by  the  introduction,  the  consideration  of  which 
can  no  longer  be  delayed.  Only  before  proceeding  further  we 
would  state  our  conviction  that  in  all  essential  points,  the  date 
of  the  papyrus,  the  form  of  the  Sayings,  their  relation  to  the 
Canonical  Gospels,  and  the  general  character  of  the  new  ele- 
ments in  them,  to  say  nothing  of  the  parallelism  of  thought 
between  the  ist  and  3rd  Sayings  and  the  5th  Logion,  the  re- 
semblances between  1  and  2  so  far  outweigh  the  differences 
that  for  practical  purposes  they  may  be  treated  as  parts  of  the 
same  collection. 

'  These  are  the  .  .  .  words  which  Jesus  the  living  (Lord]  spake 
to  .  .  .  and  Thomas,  and  he  said  unto  (them)  "  Every  one  that 
hearkens  to  these  words  shall  never  taste  of  death'' '  Such  is 
the  remarkable  opening  prefixed  to  the  collection  of  Sayings  in 
1  by  its  unknown  editor.  The  first  point  to  be  noticed  is  that 
the  name  given  to  the  collection  is,  as  was  acutely  divined  by 
Dr.  Lock  (Two  Lectures  on  the  Sayings  of  Jesus  t  p.  16),  Logoi, 
not  Logia,  and  all  questions  concerning  the  meaning  of  the 
latter  term  may  therefore  be  left  out  of  account  in  dealing  with 
the  present  series  of  Sayings.  The  converse  of  this,  however, 
in  our  opinion  by  no  means  holds  good,  and  as  we  have  pointed 
out  (pp.  12-3),  the  analogy  of  the  present  document  has  a  con- 
siderable bearing  upon  the  problems  concerning  an  early  col- 
lection of  '  Logia.'  Secondly,  the  collection  is  represented  as 
being  spoken  either  to  St.  Thomas  alone  or  to  St.  Thomas  and 
another  disciple  or,  less  probably,  other  disciples.  Does  the 
compiler  mean  that  the  Sayings  were  the  subject  of  a  special  re- 
velation to  St.  Thomas  and  perhaps  another  disciple,  from  which 


26  I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS 

the  rest  were  excluded  ?  The  case  in  favour  of  an  affirmative 
answer  to  this  query  would  be  greatly  strengthened  if  the  in- 
troduction provided  any  indication  that  the  editor  assigned  his 
collection  of  Sayings  to  the  period  after  the  Resurrection.  But 
no  such  evidence  is  forthcoming.  In  the  Canonical  Gospels 
St.  Thomas  is  indeed  made  prominent  only  in  connexion  with 
that  period  (John  xx.  24  sqq.),  but  this  circumstance,  which  is 
probably  the  strongest  argument  in  favour  of  a  post-resurrec- 
tional  point  of  view,  is  discounted  by  the  fact  that  the  Gospel 
of  Thomas,  so  far  as  can  be  judged,  was  not  of  the  nature  of  a 
post-resurrectional  Gospel  but  rather  a  Gospel  of  the  childhood 
(cf.  p.  32),  and,  secondly,  seems  to  be  outweighed  by  the  indi- 
cations in  the  Sayings  themselves  that  some  of  them  at  any 
rate  were  assigned  to  Jesus'  lifetime.  We  are  not  therefore  dis- 
posed to  consider  that  the  introduction  to  the  Sayings,  any 
more  than  the  Sayings  by  themselves,  implies  a  post-resurrec- 
tional point  of  view  on  the  part  of  the  compiler.  What  we 
think  he  did  mean  to  imply  was  that  the  ultimate  authority  for 
the  record  of  these  Sayings  was  in  his  opinion  St.  Thomas  or 
St.  Thomas  and  another  disciple.  This  hypothesis  provides  a 
satisfactory,  in  fact  we  think  the  only  satisfactory,  explanation 
of  the  frequent  changes  of  persons  and  abrupt  transitions  of 
subject  which  characterize  the  Sayings  as  a  whole. 

What  value,  if  any,  is  to  be  attached  to  this  far-reaching 
claim  —  that  the  collection  of  Sayings  derives  its  authority,  not 
from  the  traditional  sources  of  any  of  the  four  Canonical  Gos- 
pels, but  from  St.  Thomas  and  perhaps  another  disciple  ?  The 
custom  of  invoking  the  authority  of  a  great  and  familiar  name 
for  an  anonymous  and  later  work  is  so  common  in  early  Chris- 
tian, as  in  other,  writings,  that  the  mere  statement  of  the  editor 
carries  no  weight  by  itself,  and  is  not  worth  considering  unless 
the  internal  evidence  of  the  Sayings  themselves  can  be  shown 
to  point  in  the  same  direction,  or  at  any  rate  to  be  not  incon- 
sistent with  his  claim.  We  pass,  therefore,  to  the  problem  of 
the  general  nature  and  origin  of  the  Sayings  in  1  and  2,  and 
as  a  convenient  method  of  inquiry  start  from  an  examination 
of  some  of  the  various  theories  already  put  forward  in  explana- 
tion of  2.  A  useful  bibliography  and  rtsumt  of  the  contro- 


I.   NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS  27 

versy  will  be  found  in  Professors  Lock  and  Sanday's  Two  Lec- 
tures on  the  Sayings  of  Jesus. 

In  our  original  edition  of  2  we  proposed  A.  D.  140  as  the 
latest  date  to  which  the  composition  of  the  Sayings  could  be  re- 
ferred. This  terminus  ad  quern  has  generally  been  accepted, 
by  even  Dr.  Sanday,  who  is  amongst  the  most  conservative 
of  our  critics;  and  we  should  propose  A.  D.  140  for  the  termi- 
nus ad  quem  in  reference  to  1  with  greater  confidence  than 
we  felt  about  2  in  1897. 

The  chief  dividing  line  in  the  controversy  lies  between  those 
who  agreed  with  our  suggestion  that  2  belonged  to  a  collection 
of  Sayings  as  such,  and  those  who  considered  2  to  be  a  series 
of  extracts  from  one  or  more  of  the  numerous  extra-canonical 
gospels  which  are  known  to  have  circulated  in  Egypt  in  the 
second  century.  Does  1  help  to  decide  the  question  in  either 
direction  ?  One  argument  which  has  been  widely  used  in  sup- 
port of  the  view  that  2  was  really  a  series  of  extracts,  viz.  that 
the  Sayings  had  no  contexts,  is  somewhat  damaged  by  the 
appearance  of  a  Saying  which  has  a  context.  But  the  formal 
presence  or  absence  of  contexts  in  a  series  of  Sayings  can  be 
employed  with  equal  plausibility  to  prove  or  disprove  the  view 
that  the  series  consisted  of  extracts,  and  would  therefore  seem 
a  very  unsound  argument  to  introduce  into  the  discussion. 
The  matter  of  the  context  of  the  5th  Saying,  however,  has 
perhaps  a  more  important  bearing  than  the  form  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  extracts.  The  phrase  '  Jesus  saith  '  there  follows  two 
historic  presents,  '  question  '  and  '  say,'  and  is  therefore  pre- 
sumably itself  a  historic  present ;  and  if  '  Jesus  saith '  is  a  his- 
toric present  in  one  case,  it  should  be  so  throughout  1  and  2. 
Is  it  then  probable  that  the  formula  '  Jesus  saith '  has  been 
taken  over  without  alteration  by  the  editor  from  his  source, 
which  was  therefore  presumably  a  Gospel  narrative  ?  To  this 
we  should  answer  by  a  decided  negative.  It  is  not  likely  that 
the  present  tense  *  saith  '  would  have  been  uniformly  employed 
in  a  narrative,  and  yet  1  provides  at  least  three  more  instances 
of  the  phrase  '  Jesus  saith  '  (11.  9,  27,  and  36).  It  is,  we  think, 
much  more  probable  that  the  formula  is  due  to  the  editor  of 
the  Collection  than  to  his  sources,  whatever  they  were.  And 


28  I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF  JESUS 

though  there  is  now  no  longer  any  particular  reason  for  inter- 
preting the  tense  of  '  saith '  as  more  than  a  historic  present,  a 
secondary  meaning  is  not  excluded,  and  may  be  present  in 
1.  36  just  as  much  as  in  the  other  instances  where  there  is  no 
context.  We  should  be  inclined  to  paraphrase  '  Jesus  saith  ' 
as  '  This  is  one  of  those  Sayings  of  Jesus  to  which  I  referred 
in  the  introduction,'  and  to  explain  the  uniform  repetition  of 
it  as  marking  off  the  several  Sayings  from  each  other,  and  giv- 
ing greater  impressiveness  to  the  whole.  The  fact  that  the 
editor  used  the  aorist  and  not  the  historic  present  in  his  intro- 
duction suggests  that  by  his  employment  of  the  present  tense 
'  saith  '  throughout  the  Sayings  he  intended  to  produce  a 
slightly  different  effect  from  that  which  would  have  been  caused 
by  '  said.'  But  this  new  light  shed  upon  the  formula  '  Jesus 
saith  '  does  not  bring  with  it  any  new  reason  for  regarding  the 
Sayings  as  extracts  from  a  narrative  Gospel. 

A  much  more  important  factor  in  deciding  whether  the  Say- 
ings are  extracts  or  not  is  the  introduction,  which  though  it 
may  be  a  later  addition,  and  though  the  reference  to  St.  Thomas 
may  be  merely  a  bold  invention  of  the  editor,  is  there,  and  its 
presence  has  to  be  accounted  for.  So  far  from  stating  that 
the  Sayings  are  extracts  from  any  work,  the  editor  asserts  that 
they  are  a  collection  of  Sayings,  a  circumstance  which  seems  to 
provide  an  adequate  explanation  not  only  of  the  disconnected 
character  of  the  Sayings  in  part  of  the  collection,  but  of  the 
repetition  of  the  formula  '  Jesus  saith '  before  each  one.  It  is 
now  clear  that  1  was  meant  by  the  editor  to  be  regarded  as  an 
independent  literary  work,  complete  in  itself  ;  and  though  it  is 
not  necessary  to  accept  it  as  such,  those  who  wish  to  maintain 
that  the  collection  is  something  quite  different  from  what  it 
purports  to  be  must  be  prepared  to  explain  how  the  introduc- 
tion comes  to  be  there.  Hence  we  think  that  no  theory  of  the 
origin  of  the  Sayings  as  a  whole  is  to  be  considered  satisfactory 
unless  it  at  the  same  time  provides  a  reasonable  explanation  of 
the  fact  that  some  one  not  later  than  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  published  the  Sayings  as  specially  connected  with  St. 
Thomas  (and  perhaps  another  disciple),  and  that  the  collection 
attained  sufficient  importance  for  it  to  be  read,  and  presumably 


I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS  29 

accepted  as  genuine,  in  the  chief  towns  of  Upper  Egypt  in  the 
century  following. 

Among  the  different  explanations  of  2  which  hays  been  put 
forward  the  most  generally  accepted  is  probably  that  main- 
tained, with  all  his  usual  brilliant  powers  of  analysis,  by  Pro- 
fessor Harnack,  that  2  consisted  of  extracts  from  the  Gospel  ac- 
cording to  the  Egyptians,  an  early  Gospel  covering  apparently 
the  same  ground  as  the  Synoptists  and  circulating  principally 
in  Egypt,  where  it  was  probably  composed.  The  question  was, 
however,  complicated  by  the  extremely  divergent  views  held 
concerning  the  importance  and  heretical  character  of  that  Gos- 
pel, to  which  only  one  passage  of  any  length  can  be  assigned 
with  certainty  (cf.  p.  43,  where  a  translation  of  it  is  given). 
There  is  little  if  any  relation  between  that  extract  and  anything 
in  2 ;  and  disagreeing  as  we  do  with  Harnack's  view  of  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians,  we  have  never  been  able 
to  regard  his  explanation  of  2  as  satisfactory.  The  evidence 
of  1  provides  fresh  objections  to  the  theory.  There  is  no 
direct  point  of  contact  between  1  and  the  Gospel  according  to 
the  Egyptians,  and  where  one  of  the  uncanonical  Sayings  hap- 
pens to  be  known  it  occurs  not  in  this  Gospel  but  in  that 
according  to  the  Hebrews.  There  is,  indeed,  more  to  be  said 
for  regarding  1  as  extracts  from  the  latter  Gospel,  as  has  been 
suggested  in  the  case  of  2  by  more  than  one  critic,  than  from 
the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians.  In  their  divergence 
from  the  Canonical  Gospels,  the  striking  character  of  much  of 
the  new  matter,  the  Hebraic  parallelisms  of  expression,  the 
Sayings  are  quite  in  keeping  with  the  style  of  the  most  vener- 
able and  important  of  all  the  uncanonical  Gospels,  which  is 
known  to  have  been  written  originally  in  Hebrew,  and  which 
is  now  generally  regarded  as  independent  of  the  four  Canonical 
Gospels  and  but  little  later  than  the  Synoptists  in  date.  To 
these  points  of  connexion  has  now  to  be  added  the  far  more 
solid  piece  of  evidence  afforded  by  the  ist  Saying  in  1.  There 
remain  indeed  the  objections  (cf.  Sayings  of  our  Lord,  p.  17) 
that  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  would  be  expected 
to  show  greater  resemblance  to  St.  Matthew  than  we  find  in  2 
and  1,  which  is  even  further  away  from  St.  Matthew's  Gospel 


30  I.    NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS 

than  2,  and  secondly  that  the  Johannine  colouring  traceable  in 
the  new  Sayings  is  foreign  to  the  extant  fragments  of  the  Gos- 
pel according  to  the  Hebrews,  which  seems  to  have  been  quite 
parallel  to  the  Synoptists.  But  it  is  quite  possible  that  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  had  a  mystical  side  which  is 
revealed  to  us  occasionally  (as  e.  g.  in  the  curious  passage  in 
which  Jesus  speaks  of  his  '  mother,  the  Holy  Ghost,'  and  in 
the  Saying  found  also  in  1),  but  which  owing  to  the  paucity  of 
references  has  hitherto  been  underestimated.  A  far  graver 
and  in  fact  almost  fatal  objection,  however,  to  regarding  the 
Sayings  as  extracts  culled  from  either  the  Gospel  according 
to  the  Hebrews  or  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  is 
the  irreconcilability  of  such  a  view  with  the  introduction  of  1. 
It  is  very  difficult  to  believe  that  an  editor  would  have  had  the 
boldness  to  issue  extracts  from  such  widely  known  works  as 
an  independent  collection  of  Sayings  claiming  the  authority  of 
Thomas  and  perhaps  another  disciple.  Even  if  we  supply  '  to 
Matthew '  hi  1.  2  before  '  and  Thomas  '  and  suppose  that  the 
mention  of  Thomas  is  of  quite  secondary  importance,  it  is  very 
hard  to  supply  a  reasonable  motive  for  issuing  a  series  of 
extracts  from  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  with  such 
a  preface  as  we  find  in  1,  and  to  account  for  the  popularity  of 
these  supposed  extracts  in  the  century  following  their  publica- 
tion. We  are  therefore  on  the  whole  opposed  to  the  view, 
attractive  though  it  undoubtedly  is,  that  the  Sayings  are  all 
directly  derived  from  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews. 
But  that  there  is  a  connexion  between  them  is  certain,  and  it 
is  significant  that  the  Stromateis  of  Clement  of  Alexandria,  in 
which  work  Dr.  Mayor  (ap.  Rendel  Harris,  Contemp.  Rev.  1 897, 
pp.  344-5)  has  with  much  probability  detected  references  to 
the  2nd  Logion,  are  also  the  source  of  the  quotation  from  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  which  is  closely  parallel  to 
the  ist  Saying.  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  the  2nd  Logion 
('  Except  ye  fast ')  also  presented  a  strong  similarity  to  a  pas- 
sage in  the  same  Gospel. 

Both  views  which  we  have  discussed  so  far  have,  whether 
satisfactory  or  not  on  other  grounds,  been  confronted  by  the 
initial  difficulty  of  the  introduction.  Let  us  now  consider  the 


I.   NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS  31 

Gospel  ascribed  to  the  disciple  whose  name  occurs  in  1.  3.  It 
is  obvious  that  the  introduction  would  suit  a  series  of  extracts 
from  the  Gospel  of  Thomas  much  better  than  one  from  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews.  The  Gospel  of  Thomas  is 
known  to  have  existed  in  more  than  one  form,  namely  as  an 
account  of  Jesus'  childhood  which  is  extant  in  several  late  re- 
censions of  varying  length,  and  as  an  earlier  Gospel  condemned 
by  Hippolytus  in  the  following  passage  (Refut.  v.  7)  '  But 
they  (sc.  the  Naassenes)  assert  that  not  only  is  there  in  favour 
of  their  doctrine  testimony  to  be  drawn  from  the  mysteries  of 
the  Assyrians,  but  also  from  those  of  the  Phrygians  concern- 
ing the  happy  nature,  concealed  and  yet  at  the  same  time  dis- 
closed, of  things  that  have  been  and  are  coming  into  existence 
and  moreover  will  be,  (a  happy  nature)  which,  (the  Naassene) 
says,  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  be  sought  for  within  a  man. 
And  concerning  this  (nature)  they  hand  down  an  explicit 
passage  occurring  in  the  Gospel  inscribed  "  according  to 
Thomas,"  expressing  themselves  thus  :  "  He  who  seeks  me 
will  find  me  in  children  from  seven  years  old ;  for  there  con- 
cealed I  shall  in  the  fourteenth  age  (or  aeon)  be  made  mani- 
fest." :  Here  we  have  two  remarkable  points  of  contact 
with  1,  the  mention  of  Thomas  coupled  with  the  '  kingdom  of 
heaven  within  a  man  '  (cf.  the  2nd  Saying).  The  parallels  be- 
tween 2  and  one  of  the  later  forms  of  the  Thomas  Gospel  have 
been  worked  out  with  great  ingenuity  and  elaboration  by  Dr. 
Taylor  on  pp.  90-8  of  The  Oxyrhynchus  Logia  and  the  Apocry- 
pJtal  Gospels.  There  is  much  to  be  said  for  his  view  that  the 
extant  Gospel  of  Thomas  contains  some  traces  of  2,  and  the 
probability  would  be  increased  if  2,  which  Dr.  Taylor  was 
inclined  to  regard  as  extracts  from  the  Gospel  according  to  the 
Egyptians,  be  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  earlier  Gospel 
of  Thomas.  1  does  not  seem  to  contain  any  clear  points  of 
connexion  with  the  later  Gospel  of  Thomas,  but  this  is  com- 
pensated for  by  the  remarkable  parallel  from  Hippolytus  quoted 
above.  It  is  moreover  noteworthy,  as  Mr.  Badham  remarks, 
that  the  Acts  of  Thomas,  which  may  well  have  been  partly 
built  upon  the  Gospel,  exhibit  a  knowledge  of  that  Saying 
which  occurs  both  in  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  and 


32  I.    NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS 

in  1  (cf.  p.  15),  and  that,  as  Professor  Lake  informs  us,  an  Athos 
MS.  (Studia  Biblica,  v.  2,  p.  173)  asserts  that  the  story  of 
Christ  and  the  woman  taken  in  adultery  (which  has  found  its 
way  from  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  into  St.  John's 
Gospel)  occurred  in  the  Gospel  of  Thomas.  But  there  are  se- 
rious objections  to  regarding  1  and  2  as  extracts  from  that 
Gospel.  In  the  first  place  though  it  is  possible  that  Thomas 
is  the  only  disciple  mentioned  in  the  introduction,  it  is  equally 
possible  that  he  stood  second,  and  in  that  case  the  Gospel  from 
which  the  Sayings  may  have  been  extracted  is  more  likely  to 
have  been  one  which  went  under  the  name  of  the  person  who 
stood  first ;  though  indeed,  if  there  were  two  disciples  men- 
tioned in  the  introduction,  it  is  not  very  satisfactory  to  derive 
the  Sayings  from  any  Gospel  which  went  under  the  name  of 
only  one.  A  much  greater  difficulty  arises  from  the  diver- 
gence of  the  Sayings  from  what  little  is  known  about  the  ear- 
lier Gospel  of  Thomas.  The  saying  quoted  by  Hippolytus  is 
widely  removed  in  character  from  those  in  1  and  2  ;  and  al- 
though the  Gospel  of  Thomas  has  been  placed  before  A.  D.  180, 
yet  from  the  quotation  in  Hippolytus,  coupled  with  the  form  of 
the  Gospel  in  later  times  and  the  scanty  evidence  from  other 
sources,  it  has  been  generally  considered  to  have  been  mainly 
at  any  rate  a  gospel  of  the  childhood  and  of  an  advanced  Gnostic 
character.  If  the  Sayings  are  to  be  derived  from  it,  the  current 
view  of  the  Gospel  of  Thomas  must  be  entirely  changed  ;  and 
it  is  very  doubtful  whether  this  can  be  done  except  by  postulat- 
ing the  existence  of  an  original  Thomas  Gospel  behind  that  con- 
demned by  Hippolytus.  This  would  lead  us  into  a  region  of 
pure  conjecture  upon  which  we  are  unwilling  to  enter,  at  any 
rate  until  other  less  hazardous  roads  to  a  solution  are  closed. 
That  there  is  a  connexion  between  the  earlier  Gospel  of 
Thomas  and  the  Sayings  is  extremely  likely,  but  this  can  be 
better  explained  by  supposing  that  the  Sayings  influenced  the 
Gospel  than  by  the  hypothesis  that  the  Gospel  is  the  source  of 
the  Sayings. 

Our  conclusion,  therefore,  is  that  neither  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  the  Egyptians,  nor  that  according  to  the  Hebrews,  nor 
that  according  to  Thomas,  still  less  any  of  the  other  known 


I.    NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS  33 

uncanonical  Gospels,  is  a  suitable  source  for  the  Sayings  as  a 
whole.  There  is  more  to  be  said  for  explaining  them  as  a  series 
of  extracts  from  several  of  these  Gospels,  as  was  suggested 
with  regard  to  2  by  Dr.  James,  though  this  view  evades  rather 
than  solves  the  problem.  The  occurrence  of  a  Saying  which 
is  known  to  have  been  also  found  in  the  Gospel  according  to 
the  Hebrews,  side  by  side  with  other  Sayings  which  it  is  difficult 
to  ascribe  to  the  same  source,  rather  favours  the  theory  of  an 
eclectic  series  derived  from  different  Gospels.  But  the  intro- 
duction connecting  the  Sayings  with  particular  disciples  is  not 
very  suitable  for  such  a  collection  which  ex  hypothesi  is  of  an 
altogether  miscellaneous  character ;  and  in  our  opinion  the 
Sayings  are  much  more  likely  to  be  a  source  utilized  in  one  or 
more  of  the  uncanonical  Gospels,  than  vice  versa.  The  prob- 
ability of  the  general  explanation  of  2  which  we  suggested  in 
1897  and  which  has  been  supported  by  many  critics,  amongst 
others  Drs.  Swete,  Rendel  Harris,  Sanday,  Lock,  and  Heinrici, 
that  it  was  part  of  a  collection  of  Sayings  as  such,  is  largely 
increased  by  the  discovery  of  1,  with  its  introduction  to  the 
whole  collection  stating  that  it  was  a  collection  of  Logoi,  which 
was  obviously  intended  to  stand  as  an  independent  literary 
work.  In  fact  we  doubt  if  theories  of  extracts  are  any  longer 
justifiable ;  and  in  any  case  such  explanations  will  henceforth 
be  placed  at  the  initial  disadvantage  of  starting  with  an  assump- 
tion which  is  distinctly  contradicted  by  the  introduction  of  1. 
It  is  of  course  possible  to  explain  away  this  introduction,  but 
unless  very  strong  reasons  can  be  adduced  for  doing  so,  the 
simpler  and  far  safer  course  is  to  accept  the  editor's  statement 
that  1,  to  which,  as  we  have  said,  2  is  closely  allied,  is  a  collec- 
tion of  Sayings  of  Jesus. 

The  opinions  of  those  critics  who  agreed  with  our  general 
explanation  of  2  as  against  the  various  theories  of  extracts  may 
be  divided  into  two  classes  :  (i)  those  who  regarded  2  as  a 
collection  of  Sayings  independent  of  the  Gospels  and  belonging 
to  the  first  century,  and  who  therefore  were  disposed  to  admit 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent  and  with  much  varying  degrees  of 
confidence  the  presence  of  genuine  elements  in  the  new  matter 
(Drs.  Swete,  Rendel  Harris,  Lock,  and  Heinrici) ;  (2)  those 


34  I.    NEW    SAYINGS   OF   JESUS 

who,  like  Dr.  Sanday,  regarded  the  new  Sayings  in  2  as  the 
product  of  the  early  second  century,  not  directly  dependent  on 
the  Canonical  Gospels,  but  having  '  their  origin  under  condi- 
tions of  thought  which  these  Gospels  had  created '  (Sanday, 
op.  cit.  p.  41),  a  view  which  necessarily  carries  with  it  the  re- 
jection of  the  new  matter.  It  remains  to  ask  how  far  1  helps 
to  decide  the  points  at  issue  in  favour  of  either  side. 

With  regard  to  the  relation  of  1  to  the  Canonical  Gospels,  the 
proportion  of  new  and  old  matter  is  about  the  same  as  in  2, 
and  the  parallels  to  the  Canonical  Gospels  in  1  exhibit  the  same 
freedom  of  treatment,  which  can  be  explained  either  as  imply- 
ing independence  of  the  Canonical  Gospels,  or  as  the  liberties 
taken  by  an  early  redactor.  The  introduction  in  1  contains  a 
clearer  parallel  to  St.  John's  Gospel  than  anything  to  be  found 
in  2 ;  but  even  if  it  be  conceded  that  the  introduction  implied 
a  knowledge  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  and  was  therefore  probably 
composed  in  the  second  century,  the  Sayings  themselves  can 
(and,  as  we  shall  show,  do)  contain  at  any  rate  some  elements 
which  are  not  derived  from  the  Canonical  Gospels,  and  go  back 
to  the  first  century.  So  far  as  the  evidence  of  1  goes,  there  is 
nothing  to  cause  any  one  to  renounce  opinions  which  he  may 
have  formed  concerning  the  relation  of  2  to  the  Canonical 
Gospels.  No  one  who  feels  certain  on  this  point  with  regard 
to  the  one,  is  likely  to  be  convinced  of  the  incorrectness  of  his 
view  by  the  other. 

Secondly,  with  regard  to  the  new  matter  in  1,  the  uncertainties 
attaching  to  the  restoration  and  meaning  of  most  of  the  2nd, 
the  earlier  part  of  the  3rd,  and  all  the  5th  Saying,  unfortunately 
prevent  them  from  being  of  much  use  for  purposes  of  critical 
analysis.  Only  with  regard  to  the  ist  Saying  ('  Let  not  him 
that  seeketh  cease ')  are  we  on  quite  sure  ground.  Concerning 
this  striking  sentence,  as  we  have  said,  the  most  diverse  opinions 
have  been  held  ;  but  the  balance  of  recent  criticism  is  in  favour 
of  accepting  it  as  genuine,  though  on  account  of  the  absence 
of  widely  attested  authority  for  it,  it  is  not  placed  in  the  highest 
class  of  genuine  Sayings  which  includes  '  It  is  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive.'  The  occurrence  of  the  Saying  in  1  is  a 
new  argument  for  its  authority.  But  whatever  view  be  taken 


I.    NEW   SAYINGS    OF   JESUS  35 

of  its  authenticity,  and  however  the  connexion  between  1  and 
the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  is  to  be  explained,  the  ist 
Saying  in  1  establishes  one  important  fact.  Dr.  Sanday  may 
be  right  in  regarding  A.  D.  100  as  the  terminus  a  quo  for  the 
composition  of  2,  and  the  same  terminus  a  quo  can  of  course  be 
assigned  to  1  in  the  sense  that  the  Sayings  were  not  put  to- 
gether and  the  introduction  not  written  before  that  date.  But, 
if  we  may  accept  the  agreement  of  the  leading  theologians  that 
the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews  was  written  in  the  first  century,  it 
is  impossible  any  longer  to  deny  that  1  and  therefore,  as  we 
maintain,  2,  contain  some  non-canonical  elements  which  directly 
or  indirectly  go  back  to  the  first  century ;  and  the  existence  of 
first  century  elements  in  one  case  certainly  increases  the  prob- 
ability of  their  presence  in  others.  In  this  respect,  therefore, 
1  provides  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  the  views  of  those 
critics  who  were  prepared  to  allow  a  first  century  date  for  the 
'  Logia '  of  1897,  and  accordingly  to  treat  them  as  reflecting  a 
substantially  authentic  tradition. 

Are  we  then,  adapting  to  1  Dr.  Sanday's  view  of  2  with  the 
fewest  possible  modifications,  to  regard  the  whole  collection  as 
a  free  compilation  in  the  early  part  of  the  second  century,  by 
an  Alexandrian  Jewish-Christian,  of  Sayings  ultimately  derived 
from  the  Canonical  Gospels,  and  very  likely  the  Gospels  accord- 
ing to  the  Hebrews  and  Thomas,  and  perhaps  others  as  well ; 
and  shall  we  dismiss  the  new  elements,  except  the  ist  Saying 
in  1,  as  the  spurious  accretions  of  an  age  of  philosophic  specu- 
lation, and  surroundings  of  dubious  orthodoxy  ?  Even  so  the 
two  papyri  are  of  great  interest  as  revealing  a  hitherto  unknown 
development  of  primitive  belief  upon  the  nature  of  Christ's 
teaching,  and  supplying  new  and  valuable  evidence  for  deter- 
mining the  relationship  of  the  uncanonical  Gospels  to  the  main 
current  of  orthodox  Christianity.  Or  are  we  rather  to  consider 
1  and  2  to  be  fragments  of  an  early  collection  of  our  Lord's 
Sayings  in  a  form  which  has  been  influenced  to  some  extent 
by  the  thought  and  literature  of  the  apostolic  and  post-apostolic 
age,  and  which  may  well  itself  have  influenced  the  Gospel 
of  Thomas  and  perhaps  others  of  the  heretical  Gospels,  but 
which  is  ultimately  connected  in  a  large  measure  with  a  first- 


36  I.    NEW   SAYINGS   OF   JESUS 

hand  source  other  than  that  of  any  of  the  Canonical  Gospels  ? 
Some  such  view  has  been  maintained  by  scholars  of  eminence, 
e.  g.  Heinrici  and  Rendel  Harris,  with  regard  to  2 ;  and  if 
the  claim  made  by  the  editor  of  the  collection  in  his  intro- 
duction, that  his  source  was  St.  Thomas  and  perhaps  another 
disciple,  amounts  to  but  little  more,  the  internal  evidence  of  1 
provides  no  obvious  reason  why  we  should  concede  him  much 
less  ;  while  the  occurrence  of  one  uncanonical  Saying,  which 
is  already  known  to  be  of  extreme  antiquity  and  has  been 
accepted  as  substantially  genuine  by  several  critics,  lends  con- 
siderable support  to  the  others  which  rest  on  the  evidence  of  1 
and  2  alone. 

That  is  as  far  as  we  are  prepared  to  go ;  for  a  really  weighty 
and  perfectly  unbiassed  estimate  of  the  ultimate  value  of  any 
new  discovery,  resort  must  be  made  to  some  other  quarter  than 
the  discoverers.  We  conclude  by  pointing  out  that,  if  the  view 
with  regard  to  the  Sayings  which  we  have  just  indicated  is  on 
the  right  lines,  the  analogy  of  this  collection  has  an  obvious 
bearing  on  the  question  of  the  sources  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels, 
and  that  the  mystical  and  speculative  element  in  the  early 
records  of  Christ's  Sayings  which  found  its  highest  and  most 
widely  accepted  expression  in  St.  John's  Gospel,  may  well  have 
been  much  more  general  and  less  peculiarly  Johannine  than 
has  hitherto  been  taken  for  granted. 


II.     THE   'LOGIA'   DISCOVERED   IN    1897 
(THE   OXYRHYNCHUS   PAPYRI,   PART   I,    i.) 

LOGION    I. 

.   .   .   /cat  Tore  Sta^8Xei/f€ts  fKJ3a\€lv  TO  /capc^os  TO  lv  TO> 


TOV  ae<ov  crov. 

1  ...  and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast  out  the  mote 
that  is  in  thy  brother's  eye.' 

LOGION  2. 

Aeyet  'ITTCTOVS,  cav  /AT)   vr)o~Tevo~r)Te  TOV  Koo~p,ov  ov  /AT) 
ev/OTTTe  Trjv  fiao-iXeLav  TOV  Beov'  /cat  lav  /AT) 
TO  (rd33a.TOv  OVK 


'Jesus  saith,  Except  ye  fast  to  the  world,  ye  shall  in  no 
wise  find  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  and  except  ye  make  the 
sabbath  a  real  sabbath,  ye  shall  not  see  the  Father.' 

LOGION  3. 

Aeyct  'lT7o~ov5,  e[o~]TT7v  iv  /xeo~oj  TOV  /coVjUou  /cat  Iv 
(rapKi  axj)0r}v  avrot?,  /cat  evpov  ircivTas  p.€0vovTas  /cat 
ovSei'a  evpov  Sti/iait'Ta  eV  avTot?,  /cat  novel  T)  ^v^rj  JJLOV  67rt 

TOt?    VtOt9    TO)V     dv0pa>7T(t)l>,     OTL    TV<j)\Ol     €L(TLV    TV)     /Ca/oSta 

Kat  ov     \ 


'  Jesus  saith,  I  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  world  and  in  the 
flesh  was  I  seen  of  them,  and  I  found  all  men  drunken,  and 
none  found  I  athirst  among  them,  and  my  soul  grieveth 
over  the  sons  of  men,  because  they  are  blind  in  their  heart 
and  see  not  .  .  .' 

LOGION  4. 

.     .     .    T~\r)V  TTTW 

'  .  .  .  poverty.' 


38      II.   THE   'LOGIA'    DISCOVERED   IN    1897 

LOGION    5. 

[Aeyjet   ['Irjorovs,    017]  ov    eav    UKTLV   \J$   ov/c]     e[i 

,  /cat  [O]TTOV  e[i9]  earif  /xoVo 
'  avr[o£r]  ey€t[p]o^  TOI>  \iBov 
Laov  TO  £v\ov  Kayo)  e/cei  et/xt. 


'  Jesus  saith,  Wherever  there  are  (two),  they  are  not 
without  God,  and  wherever  there  is  one  alone,  I  say,  I  am 
with  him.  Raise  the  stone,  and  there  thou  shalt  find  me  ; 
cleave  the  wood,  and  there  am  I.' 

LOGION  6. 

Aeyet  'iTjerou?,  OVK  tcrriv  SCKTOS  irpo<j)TJTTr)<s  ei>  rfj 
avr[o]v,  ovSe  tar/)6s  Trotet  OepaTreias  et?  rou?  yti/ci 


'  Jesus  saith,  A  prophet  is  not  acceptable  in  his  own 
country,  neither  doth  a  physician  work  cures  upon  them 
that  know  him.' 

LOGION  7. 

Aeyei  'l-^trov?,  TroXt?  ajKoSo^juei/T}  CTT'  autpov  [o]/3ov? 
/cat    i(TTf]piy^€vr)    ovre   7re[(r]eti/    Svvarat    ovre 


'  Jesus  saith,  A  city  built  upon  the  top  of  a  high  hill  and 
stablished,  can  neither  fall  nor  be  hid.' 

LOGION  8. 
Aeyei  *I^o"ov5,  a/covets    [e]t?   TO   ev  ODTLOV  crov,  TO  [Se 


'Jesus  saith,  Thou  hearest  with  one  ear,  (but  the  other 
thou  hast  closed).' 


III.    FRAGMENT   OF  A    LOST    GOSPEL 

(a)  INTRODUCTION. 

EIGHT  fragments  of  a  papyrus  in  roll  form  containing  a  lost 
Gospel,  the  largest  (b)  measuring  8.2x8.3  cm.  and  comprising 
parts  of  the  middles  of  two  narrow  columns.  None  of  the 
other  fragments  actually  joins  (b)t  but  it  is  practically  certain 
that  the  relation  to  it  of  Frs.  (a)  and  (c),  which  come  from  the 
tops  of  columns,  is  as  indicated  in  the  text.  Frs.  (d)  and  (<?), 
both  of  which  have  a  margin  below  the  writing,  probably 
belong  to  the  bottom  of  the  same  two  columns  which  are 
partly  preserved  in  (b) ;  but  how  much  is  lost  in  the  interval 
is  uncertain.  Since  the  upper  portion  of  Col.  i  admits  of  a 
sure  restoration  of  the  majority  of  the  lacunae,  the  first  23 
lines  are  nearly  complete ;  but  the  remains  of  the  second 
column  are  for  the  most  part  too  slight  for  the  sense  to  be 
recovered.  The  handwriting  is  a  small  uncial  of  the  common 
sloping  oval  type,  which  in  most  cases  belongs  to  the  third 
century.  The  papyrus  is  a  well- written  specimen,  suggesting 
the  earlier  rather  than  the  later  period  during  which  this  hand 
was  in  vogue,  and  though  we  should  not  assign  it  to  the  second 
century,  it  is  not  likely  to  have  been  written  later  than  A.  D. 
250.  Lines  1-16  give  the  conclusion  of  a  discourse  of  Jesus 
which  is  parallel  to  several  sentences  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  Then  follows  (11.  17-23)  an  account  of  a  question  put 
to  Him  by  the  disciples  and  of  the  answer.  This,  the  most 
important  part  of  the  papyrus,  is  new,  but  bears  an  interesting 
resemblance  to  a  known  quotation  from  the  Gospel  according 
to  the  Egyptians  ;  cf.  note  ad  loc.  A  passage  in  Col.  ii  seems 
to  be  parallel  to  Luke  xi.  52.  On  the  general  questions  con- 
cerning the  nature  and  origin  of  the  Gospel  to  which  the 
fragment  belonged  see  pp.  45-7. 


40        III.    FRAGMENT   OF   A    LOST    GOSPEL 


(b)  TEXT. 

Col.  i.  Col.  ii. 

(a)  I  .  .]HO  TTPGDI  f  [  .....  (e)          e[ 

[  ----  ]€  A«t>  €Cn[  .....  30  A6[ 

[.  .  .  .]PO)I  MHT€  [.  .  .  0[ 

[  ......  ]MO)N  Tl  4>A[  TA[ 

5  [  ........  ]  TH  CT[.  ry[ 

[  .......  ]  Tl  €NA.Y[.  KA[ 

(b)  [.  .]C0e  [.  .  .]ACO  KP€][.  35  N  .  [ 
[.  .  .]€C  .[...]  TO)N  [.  .  KA[ 
NCOISI  ATI[.  .  .]YEA[.  HM[ 

10  N6I  OYA6  N[.  .]€|  .  [.  Cj[ 

€N  €XONT[.  .  .]NA[.  [  ' 

MA  Tl  <?N[.  .  .  .]  KAI  40  [ 
YM6IC  TIC  AN  TTPOC9H                (b)          €A[ 

6T7I  THN  6IAIKIAN  THC  [ 

15  YMOON  AYTO[.  .]0)C€I  KPYN'[ 

YM6IN  TO  6NAYMA  Y  €ICHA[ 

MO)N  AerOYCIN  AY  45  €IC€P[ 

TO)  01  MA9HTAI  AYTOY  KAN[ 

TTOT6  HM6IN  EM*  A  A6  T€l[ 

20  NHC  eC€l  KAI  TTOT6  MOIO)[ 

ce  oYOMeeA  Aerei  KGPAI[ 

OTAN  6KAYCHC06  KAI  50  PA[ 
MH  AlCXYNQHTe 


]TIN 


35 


JCOTIN 
]QCMO) 
]H 
]CTIN 


]KA[ 


M 


K0[ 


(k) 


m 


III.    FRAGMENT   OF   A   LOST   GOSPEL        41 

[»-i      \  \       r  »  i  > 

.   .   ajTTO  Trpan  €\^a)<s  ot//e 

[jaryrjc  a<£'  e<nr[epas 

[ecus  TT~\pul  f^TJTe  [777 

[rpofirj  ii][JL(t)v  TL  <£a- 

5  [yi?T€  HTJTt]  rf)  crr[ 


o- 

Ti 


e9  [ecrre] 
vcov  an\_va  a]v^d- 
i/ct  ovSe  v[i7^]ct  .   [ 


/    »    r  -i  \ 

I  ev\_.   .  .   .J  /cat 


pa  TI 

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42        III.    FRAGMENT   OF   A    LOST   GOSPEL 

(c)  TRANSLATION   AND   NOTES. 

1-23.  '  (Take  no  thought)  from  morning  until  even  nor 
from  evening  until  morning,  either  for  your  food  what  ye 
shall  eat  or  for  your  raiment  what  ye  shall  put  on.  Ye  are 
far  better  than  the  lilies  which  grow  but  spin  not.  Having 
one  garment,  what  do  ye  (lack  ?)  .  .  .  Who  could  add  to 
your  stature  ?  He  himself  will  give  you  your  garment. 
His  disciples  say  unto  him,  When  wilt  thou  be  manifest 
to  us,  and  when  shall  we  see  thee  ?  He  saith,  When  ye 
shall  be  stripped  and  not  be  ashamed  .  .  . ' 

41-6.  ' .  .  .  He  said,  The  key  of  knowledge  ye  hid ;  ye 
entered  not  in  yourselves  and  to  them  that  were  entering 
in  ye  opened  not.' 

1-7.  Cf.  Matt.  vi.  25  'Take  no  thought  for  your  life,  what 
ye  shall  eat  or  what  ye  shall  drink ;  nor  yet  for  your  body 
what  ye  shall  put  on.  Is  not  the  life  more  than  the  food  and 
the  body  than  the  raiment  ? ',  Luke  xii.  22-3 '  Take  no  thought 
for  your  life  what  ye  shall  eat ;  nor  yet  for  your  body  what  ye 
shall  put  on.  For  the  life  is  more  than  the  food,  and  the  body 
than  the  raiment.'  The  papyrus  probably  had  the  equivalent 
of  *  Take  no  thought '  at  the  beginning  of  the  sentence,  but 
differs  ( i )  by  the  addition  of  '  from  morning  .  .  .  until  morn- 
ing,' (2)  by  the  use  of  a  different  word  for  '  body '  and  prob- 
ably for  '  life,'  though  it  is  possible  that  '  for  your  body '  or 
'for  your  life'  preceded  'from  morning'  in  1.  I,  (3)  by  the 
omission  of  the  second  half  of  the  Saying  as  recorded  in  the 
Gospels. 

7-13.  Cf.  Matt.  vi.  28  (  =  Luke  xii.  27)  'And  why  are  ye 
anxious  concerning  raiment  ?  Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field, 
how  they  grow ;  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin  :  yet  I  say 
unto  you  that  even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed 
like  one  of  these,'  and  Matt.  vi.  26  (  =  Luke  xii.  4)  'Are  ye 
not  of  much  more  value  than  they  (sc.  the  birds  of  heaven)  ? ' 
The  corresponding  passage  in  the  papyrus  is  not  only  much 
shorter,  but  varies  considerably,  though  to  what  extent  is  not 
quite  clear  owing  to  the  uncertainty  attaching  to  the  restora- 
tion of  11.  10-2. 

13-5.  Cf.  Matt.  vi.  27  (  =  Luke  xii.  25)  '  And  which  of  you 


III.    FRAGMENT   OF   A   LOST   GOSPEL        43 

by  being  anxious  can  add  one  cubit  unto  his  stature  ? '  The 
papyrus  version  is  somewhat  shorter,  omitting  '  by  being  anx- 
ious '  and  '  one  cubit.'  The  position  in  which  this  Saying  is 
found  in  the  papyrus  is  also  slightly  different  from  that  in  the 
Gospels,  where  it  immediately  precedes  instead  of  following 
the  verse  about  the  lilies. 

15-6.  Cf.  Matt.  vi.  31-3  'Be  not  therefore  anxious,  saying 
What  shall  we  eat,  or  What  shall  we  drink,  or  Wherewithal 
shall  we  be  clothed  ?  .  .  .  for  your  heavenly  Father  knoweth 
that  ye  have  need  of  all  these  things.  But  seek  ye  first  his 
kingdom  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you,'  and  Luke  xii.  29—31,  which  is  nearly  identical 
and  proceeds  '  Fear  not,  little  flock ;  for  it  is  your  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom.'  The  papyrus  has  the  cor- 
responding idea  but  expressed  with  extreme  conciseness.  '  He 
himself  will  give,'  unless  Sworei  is  an  error  for  &oo-o>,  raises  a  dif- 
ficulty, for  we  should  expect  '  The  Father  will  give '  or  '  God 
will  give.'  Apparently  *  He  himself  '  refers  back  to  '  Father ' 
or  '  God  '  in  the  column  preceding,  or  the  author  of  the  papyrus 
may  have  here  incorporated  from  some  source  a  Saying  without 
its  context  which  would  have  explained  '  He  himself.' 

17-23.  For  the  question  cf.  John  xiv.  igsqq.  'Yet  a  little 
while,  and  the  world  beholdeth  me  no  more  ;  but  ye  behold  me  : 
because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also.  .  .  .  Judas  (not  Iscariot)  saith 
unto  him,  Lord,  what  is  come  to  pass  that  thou  wilt  manifest 
thyself  unto  us  and  not  unto  the  world  ?  Jesus  answered  .  .  . 
If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  word,  and  my  Father  will 
love  him.'  The  answer  ascribed  in  the  papyrus  to  Jesus  bears 
a  striking  resemblance  to  the  answer  made  to  a  similar  question 
in  a  passage  of  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  which  is 
referred  to  several  times  by  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  which 
ran  thus  :  — '  When  Salome  asked  how  long  death  would  pre- 
vail, the  Lord  said,  So  long  as  ye  women  bear  children.  For 
I  have  come  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  female.  And  Salome 
said  to  him,  Did  I  therefore  well  in  bearing  no  children  ?  The 
Lord  answered  and  said,  Eat  every  herb,  but  eat  not  that  which 
has  bitterness.  When  Salome  asked  when  those  things  about 
which  she  questioned  should  be  made  known,  the  Lord  said, 


44        HI.    FRAGMENT    OF   A    LOST    GOSPEL 

When  ye  trample  upon  the  garment  of  shame  ;  when  the  two 
become  one,  and  the  male  with  the  female  neither  male  nor 
female.'  Cf.  the  Second  Epistle  of  Clement  xii.  2  (an  early 
Christian  homily  employing  other  Gospel  materials  besides  the 
Canonical  Gospels)  '  For  the  Lord  himself  being  asked  by  some 
one  when  his  kingdom  should  come,  said,  When  the  two  shall 
be  one,  and  the  outside  as  the  inside,  and  the  male  with  the 
female  neither  male  nor  female.'  Both  '  When  ye  shall  be 
stripped  and  not  be  ashamed  '  and '  When  ye  trample  upon  the 
garment  of  shame '  express  the  same  idea,  a  mystical  reference 
to  Gen.  iii.  7,  '  And  they  were  both  naked,  the  man  and  his  wife, 
and  they  were  not  ashamed,'  the  meaning  in  either  case  being 
that  Christ's  kingdom  on  earth  would  not  be  manifested  until 
man  had  returned  to  the  state  of  innocence  which  existed  before 
the  Fall,  and  in  which  sexual  ideas  and  relations  had  no  place. 
The  chief  differences  between  the  two  passages  are  ( I )  the  set- 
ting, the  questioner  being  in  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyp- 
tians Salome,  and  in  the  papyrus  the  disciples,  (2)  the  simpler 
language  of  the  papyrus  as  contrasted  with  the  more  literary 
and  elaborated  phrase  '  trample  upon  the  garment  of  shame,' 
(3)  the  absence  in  the  papyrus  of  the  Ascetic  tendency  found 
in  the  earlier  part  of  the  quotation  from  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  the  Egyptians.  Whether  the  papyrus  continued  after 
'  ashamed  '  with  something  like  '  and  when  the  two  become  one 
.  .  .  ,'  is  of  course  uncertain,  but  Fr.  (</),  which  probably  be- 
longs to  the  bottom  of  this  column,  is  concerned  with  some- 
thing different. 

42-6.  With  the  remains  of  these  lines  Dr.  Bartlet  compares 
Luke  xi.  52  '  Woe  unto  you  lawyers !  for  ye  took  away  (Codex 
Bezae  and  other  MSS.  'ye  hid ')  the  key  of  knowledge  ;  ye 
entered  not  in  yourselves  and  them  that  were  entering  in  ye 
hindered,'  upon  which  passage  our  restorations  are  based.  The 
variant  peculiar  to  the  papyrus  '  ye  opened  not '  in  place  of  '  ye 
hindered  '  is  a  picturesque  touch. 


III.   FRAGMENT   OF   A    LOST   GOSPEL        45 

(d)  GENERAL   REMARKS. 

This  fragment  (henceforth  called  3)  seems  to  belong  to  a 
Gospel  which  was  closely  similar  in  point  of  form  to  the  Synop- 
tists.  The  narrator  speaks  in  the  third  person,  not  in  the  first, 
and  the  portion  preserved  consists  mainly  of  discourses  which 
are  to  a  large  extent  parallel  to  passages  in  Matthew  and  Luke, 
especially  the  latter  Gospel,  which  alone  seems  to  be  connected 
with  11.  41  sqq.  The  papyrus  version  is,  as  a  rule,  shorter  than 
the  corresponding  passages  in  the  Gospels ;  where  it  is  longer 
(11.  1-3)  the  expansion  does  not  alter  the  meaning  in  any  way. 
The  chief  interest  lies  in  the  question  of  the  disciples  and  its 
answer,  both  of  which  so  closely  correspond  to  a  passage  in 
the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  and  the  uncanonical 
Gospel  or  collection  of  Sayings  used  by  the  author  of  the 
Second  Epistle  of  Clement,  that  the  Gospel  of  which  3  is  a 
fragment  clearly  belongs  to  the  same  sphere  of  thought.  Does 
it  actually  belong  to  either  of  those  works,  which,  though  Har- 
nack  regards  them  as  one  and  the  same,  are,  we  think,  more 
probably  to  be  considered  distinct  ?  In  the  Gospel  according 
to  the  Egyptians  Salome  was  the  questioner  who  occasioned 
the  remarkable  Saying  beginning,  'When  ye  trample  upon 
the  garment  of  shame,'  and  it  is  much  more  likely  that  3  pre- 
sents a  different  version  of  the  same  incident  in  another  Gospel, 
than  a  repetition  of  the  Salome  question  in  a  slightly  different 
form  in  another  part  of  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians. 
Nor  is  3  likely  to  be  the  actual  Gospel  which  the  author  of  the 
Second  Epistle  of  Clement  was  quoting.  It  is  unfortunate 
that  owing  to  the  papyrus  breaking  off  at  '  ashamed  '  there  is  no 
security  that  '  when  the  two  become  one,'  or  at  any  rate  some- 
thing very  similar,  did  not  follow,  and  the  omission  in  the 
Clement  passage  of  a  phrase  corresponding  to  11.  22-3  may  be 
a  mere  accident.  But  the  fact  that  the  question  in  the  Second 
Epistle  of  Clement  is  worded  somewhat  differently,  and  is  put 
into  the  mouth  of  '  some  one  '  instead  of  the  disciples,  as  in  3, 
is  a  good  reason  for  rejecting  the  hypothesis  that  3  is  the  Gos- 
pel quoted  in  the  Epistle. 

The  evidence  of  3  as  to  its  origin  being  thus  largely  of  a 


46        III.    FRAGMENT    OF   A    LOST    GOSPEL 

negative  character,  we  do  not  propose  to  discuss  in  detail 
whether  it  is  likely  to  belong  to  any  of  the  other  known  Apo- 
cryphal Gospels.  There  are  several  to  which  it  might  be  as- 
signed, but  direct  evidence  is  wanting.  If  the  Gospel  according 
to  the  Hebrews  were  thought  of,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
suppose  that  the  resemblances  in  3  to  Matthew  and  Luke  did 
not  imply  dependence  upon  them.  In  its  relation  to  the  Ca- 
nonical Gospels  3  somewhat  resembles  the  new  Sayings,  and 
the  view  that  3  was,  though  no  doubt  at  least  secondary, 
dependent  not  on  Matthew  and  Luke,  but  upon  some  other 
document,  whether  behind  the  Synoptists  or  merely  parallel  to 
them,  is  tenable,  but  is  less  likely  to  commend  itself  to  the 
majority  of  critics  than  the  opposite  hypothesis  that  3  is  ulti 
mately  an  abridgement  of  Matthew  and  Luke  with  considerable 
alterations.  In  either  case  the  freedom  with  which  the  author 
of  the  papyrus  Gospel  handles  the  material  grouped  by  St. 
Matthew  and  St.  Luke  under  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is 
remarkable.  The  Gospel  from  which  3  comes  is  likely  to  have 
been  composed  in  Egypt  before  A.  D.  150,  and  to  have  stood 
in  intimate  relation  to  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians 
and  the  uncanonical  source  used  by  the  author  of  the  Second 
Epistle  of  Clement.  Whether  it  was  earlier  or  later  than  these 
is  not  clear.  The  answer  to  the  question  put  by  the  disciples 
in  3  is  couched  in  much  simpler  and  clearer  language  than  that 
of  the  corresponding  sentence  in  the  answer  to  Salome,  the 
point  of  which  is  liable  to  be  missed,  while  the  meaning  of  3. 
22-3  is  unmistakable.  But  the  greater  directness  of  the  allu- 
sion to  Gen.  iii.  7  in  3  can  be  explained  either  by  supposing 
that  the  version  in  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  is 
an  Ascetic  amplification  of  that  in  3,  or,  almost  but  not  quite 
as  well,  in  our  opinion,  by  the  view  that  the  expression  in  3  is 
a  toning  down  of  the  more  striking  phrase  '  When  ye  trample 
upon  the  garment  of  shame.' 

There  remains  the  question  of  the  likelihood  of  a  genuine 
element  in  the  story  of  which  we  now  have  three  versions, 
though  how  far  these  are  independent  of  each  other  is  uncer- 
tain. As  is  usual  with  uncanonical  Sayings,  the  most  diverse 
opinions  have  been  held  about  the  two  previously  known  pas- 


III.    FRAGMENT   OF   A    LOST   GOSPEL        47 

sages.     Previous  criticism,  which  has  recently  tended  to  favour 
the  view  that  the  story  possesses  at  least  a  kernel  of  truth,  is 
now  somewhat  discounted  by  the  circumstance  that  the  phrase 
'  When  ye  trample  upon  the  garment  of  shame  '  has  generally 
been  considered  to  mean  '  when  ye  put  off  the  body,'  i.  e.  '  die,' 
whereas  the  evidence  of  the  parallel  in  the  papyrus  gives  the 
words  a  slightly  different  turn,  and  brings  them  more  nearly 
into  line  with  the  following  sentences  '  when  the  two  become 
one,  &c.'     But  those  critics  would  nevertheless  seem  in  the 
light  of  the  new  parallel  to  be  right  who  maintain  that  the 
passage  in  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  does  not  go 
much  further  in  an  Ascetic  direction  than  e.  g.  Matt.  xxii.  30 
'  For  in  the  resurrection  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in 
marriage,  but  are  as  angels  in  heaven,'  and  Luke  xx.  34-5 
'  The  sons  of  this  world  marry  and  are  given  in  marriage  :  but 
they  that  are  accounted  worthy  to  attain  to  that  world  and  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead   neither  marry  nor  are  given  in 
marriage.'     The  occurrence  of  another  version  of  the  story  is 
an  important  additional  piece  of  evidence  in  defence  of  the  view 
that  it  contains  at  least  some  elements  of  genuineness,  and  a 
special  interest  attaches  both  to  the  form  of  the  Saying  in  3 
on  account  of  the  clearness  of  its  language,  and  to  its  context, 
in  which  other  matter  closely  related  to  the  Canonical  Gospels 
is  found  in  immediate  proximity.     All  this  lends  fresh  value  to 
what  is,  on  account  of  the  far-reaching  problems  connected 
with  it,  one  of  the  most  important  and  remarkable,  and,  since 
the  discovery  of  3,  one  of  the  better  attested,  of  the  Sayings 
ascribed  to  our  Lord  outside  the  New  Testament. 


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